Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander has successfully touched down on the moon, in a pivotal moment for private space travel.
The size of a compact car, the four-legged lander is carrying 10 scientific payloads and used 21 thrusters to guide itself to touchdown near an ancient volcanic vent on Mare Crisium, a large basin in the northeast corner of the moon’s Earth-facing side.
It has on board a vacuum to suck up moon dirt for analysis and a drill to measure temperatures as deep as 10 feet. Also on board is a device for eliminating abrasive lunar dust – a scourge for NASA’s long-ago Apollo moon walkers, who got it caked all over their spacesuits and equipment.
The demos should get two weeks of runtime before lunar daytime ends and the lander shuts down.
A smooth upright landing makes Firefly – a decade old startup – the first private company to put a spacecraft on the moon without it crashing or falling over. The lander was launched in mid-January.
Dr Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator at NASA, said this area was of “great scientific interest” but also “a very achievable place to land”.
In this rendering private lunar lander Blue Ghost touches down on the moon. Pic: AP
This moment, he said, was “one for the history books”.
Firefly becomes the second private firm to score a soft moon landing, after Houston-based Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander made a lopsided soft touchdown last year.
A “soft” moon landing refers to a controlled landing on the moon, where it touches down at a low speed and causes minimal damage to the vehicle. A “hard landing” would be a crash landing.
Staff at the Mission Control outside Austin, Texas celebrating as lunar lander Blue Ghost touches down….
