A new commercial lunar lander has made it to the surface of the Moon. Blue Ghost, a lander built and operated by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, nailed its touchdown attempt Sunday morning after a month and a half of travel. The spacecraft is now preparing to launch a series of science experiments on behalf of NASA.
Blue Ghost launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 15. As it punched through Earth's atmosphere, looped around us a handful of times, and settled into lunar transit, the lander grabbed breathtaking footage of Earth in the "rearview mirror" and the Moon's far side. Its Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC) payload, a collaboration between NASA and Montana State University, used the journey to capture data that could help future spacecraft computers recover after radiation-related faults; meanwhile, an Artemis-associated Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder payload developed by the Southwest Research Institute captured changes in nearby magnetic fields.
On March 2, Blue Ghost used its engines to kick off a descent orbit insertion burn, which lowered the spacecraft from lunar orbit into a path toward the surface. After just under an hour of coasting, Blue Ghost's thrusters activated, helping to position it over a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille. Hovered over its landing target, Blue Ghost shut off its main engine, using its smaller thrusters to cushion and make small adjustments to its descent. The lander perched on a flat piece of lunar ground at 3:34 a.m. EST on Sunday.
Now the spacecraft is preparing to launch 10 science experiments on behalf of NASA and its institutional and commercial partners. The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) will use its pneumatic drill to measure the Moon's subsurface heat flow, while a stereo camera will capture the impact of Blue Ghost's landing on nearby regolith. The Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder will switch to scoping out the rocky body's 700-mile-deep subsurface geology. One experiment will even help scientists determine how well lunar regolith sticks to other materials, perhaps in preparation for future Moon colonies.
These experiments will run for 14 days, or roughly one lunar day. Before that window closes, Blue Ghost will attempt to capture images of the lunar sunset and of the dust beneath its feet. NASA says this will help scientists explore how regolith responds to lunar dusk after Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan noted the dust might be "one of our greatest inhibitors to a nominal operation on the Moon."
Soon, Blue Ghost will have company. Athena, another commercial lunar lander developed by Intuitive Machines, will attempt to land on the Moon on March 6. It, too, has snagged some stunning images during its trip, and it will be the first spacecraft ever to establish a 4G network on the Moon.
