Blue Ghost spacecraft, developed by Firefly Aerospace, took the first photographs of the Moon during an orbital flight.
American spacecraft Blue Ghost, developed by Firefly Aerospace, took pictures of the moon while in its orbit.
If everything goes according to plan, the device will stay in the lunar orbit for a while 16 days. He recently activated the engines on 4 minutes 15 seconds, to correct the trajectory and reach the orbit of the moon, after which he took several pictures of the Earth's satellite.
Expected, what 2 In March, Blue Ghost will attempt a soft landing in the Sea of Crisis area, located on the eastern part of the visible side of the Moon. The device was launched 15 in January by the Falcon rocket 9 SpaceX. His mission, titled "Ghost Riders in the Sky", implemented within the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services program (CLPS). The main goal is to conduct ten scientific and technical experiments, which will help NASA better study lunar conditions ahead of future astronaut missions under the Artemis program.
So far, only one private company - Houston-based Intuitive Machines - has successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon. It happened in February 2024 year, when the Odysseus module landed near the south pole of the Moon as part of the mission, also supported by CLPS.