Firefly Aerospace has become the second company in history to land on the Moon. The Blue Ghost spacecraft built by its engineers successfully landed near the Mare Crisium.
Blue Ghost was developed when Firefly Aerospace was headed by Ukrainian entrepreneur and philanthropist Max Polyakov. The apparatus was launched under a contract received under the CLPS program. Blue Ghost carries a payload of 10 scientific instruments provided by NASA.
It took Blue Ghost 45 days to reach the lunar surface. After launch, the vehicle spent several weeks in the vicinity of the Earth and then flew to the Moon. Then it performed several maneuvers necessary to round the orbit and reduce altitude. During the flight, Blue Ghost took many spectacular selfies and videos showing both Earth and its flight over the lunar surface.
On March 2, Blue Ghost landed near the volcanic cone Mons Latreille in the Mare Crisium. With this success, Firefly Aerospace became the second company after Intuitive Machines to land its vehicle on the Moon.
The Blue Ghost science program is designed for 14 days. It includes studying the regolith and structure of the lunar interior, experiments to pick up GPS signals on the Moon, determining the exact distance between the Earth and the Moon using a next-generation retroreflector, testing a radiation-resistant computer, and measuring the interaction of the Earth’s magnetosphere with the solar wind. Since Blue Ghost is not equipped with heaters, it is unlikely that it will be able to survive a cold lunar night.
Recall that on March 6, another private vehicle will try to land on the Moon. It is about the Athena probe built by Intuitive Machines. It should land in the southern circumpolar region of the Moon.
