Blue Ghost Lands on Moon: Pioneering New Era in US Space Exploration

This development marks only the second private mission to accomplish the feat—and the first to land upright.

AU.S. company has reached a major milestone in space exploration, successfully landing its spacecraft on the moon.

This development marks only the second private mission to accomplish the feat—and the first to land upright.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down at 3:34 a.m. ET (0834 GMT) on Sunday near Mons Latreille, a volcanic formation in Mare Crisium on the Moon’s northeastern near side, BBC reports.

The spacecraft autonomously navigated the rugged, cratered terrain, slowing from thousands of miles per hour to just two mph before making a precise landing.

This is the first private expedition to land upright and just the second to achieve the feat.

With the successful landing of its spacecraft on the moon, an American business has achieved a significant milestone in space exploration.

This is the first private expedition to land upright and just the second to achieve the feat.

At 3:34 a.m. ET (0834 GMT) on Sunday, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 landed close to Mons Latreille, a volcanic feature in Mare Crisium on the northeastern near side of the Moon, according to the BBC.

Before landing precisely, the spaceship slowed from thousands of miles per hour to only two mph as it independently traversed the rough, cratered terrain.

An engineer at Firefly's mission control in Austin, Texas, exclaimed, "Y'all stuck the landing—we're on the Moon!" as the team cheered.

In sharp contrast to the first private lunar mission last February, which landed on its side, Firefly CEO Jason Kim confirmed the lander was stable and upright. The accomplishment was also praised by NASA authorities.

“We’re on the Moon!” NASA’s Science Mission Directorate associate administrator Nicky Fox yelled.

The project, known as "Ghost Riders in the Sky," is a component of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which intends to expand the Artemis program—which will send men back to the Moon—while reducing costs.
About the size of a hippopotamus, the golden lander traveled 2.8 million miles after taking off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on January 15. It took breathtaking pictures of the Earth and the Moon along the journey.

A Japanese lander, which is slated to make an attempt at a lunar landing in May, also traveled to orbit with the expedition.

A lunar soil analyzer, a radiation-hardened computer, and an experiment examining the potential of global satellite navigation systems to support future Moon missions are among the ten scientific instruments aboard Blue Ghost.

On March 14, when Earth will block the Sun from the Moon's horizon, the lander, which is intended to run for 14 Earth days—one full lunar day—should be able to take high-definition pictures of a total eclipse.

It will capture a lunar sunset on March 16 to help scientists understand how solar radiation causes dust particles to float above the surface.

The first person to notice the lunar horizon glow was Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan.