Private U.S. Spacecraft Lands on the Moon
An American company successfully landed its spacecraft on the surface of the moon on Sunday, becoming the second private spacecraft to achieve this feat, according to a live broadcast from the mission control center.
The Blue Ghost Mission 1 spacecraft, from Firefly Aerospace, landed at 3:34 AM Eastern Time (08:34 GMT) near Mons Latrae, a volcanic formation in the Mare Crisium region on the northeastern side of the moon.
Applause echoed in the room after one of the engineers at the mission control center in Austin, Texas, shouted: “You’ve made a perfect landing, we are on the moon.”
The spacecraft is expected to send its first image shortly. The company’s CEO, Jason Kim, later confirmed that the spacecraft is “stable and upright” on the surface, unlike the previous private spacecraft that landed on the moon in February, which landed on its side.
The Blue Ghost mission is part of a partnership between NASA and private space companies, aimed at reducing costs and supporting the Artemis program, which aims to send American astronauts back to the moon.
This small golden robot, which stands two meters tall and 3.5 meters wide, took stunning photos of the Earth and the moon after being launched into space on January 15 by a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX. The Blue Ghost carries 10 scientific instruments from NASA, including a device to analyze lunar soil, a radiation-resistant computer, and an experiment to test the feasibility of using the current global navigation satellite system for navigation on the moon’s surface.
