Check out the amazing video of the Blue Ghost spacecraft landing on the moon.

Check out the amazing video of the Blue Ghost spacecraft landing on the moon.

      Here’s a still from the video of Blue Ghost's lunar landing.

      This past weekend, Firefly Aerospace achieved a historic milestone with the first fully successful moon landing by a private company. You can now view the remarkable moment when the Blue Ghost lander descended to the lunar surface in stunning video footage. The video captures the lander’s final approach to the moon, featuring perspectives from both downward-facing and outward-facing cameras. Along with the craters littering the lunar surface, observers can also see sunlight and the Earth visible in the sky.

      The mission also captured a beautiful image of a lunar sunrise, where the sun rises over the moon’s horizon. A lunar day lasts about fourteen Earth days, during which the Blue Ghost spacecraft will harness solar energy from its solar panels for power. After operating for two weeks, on March 16, the mission will witness the lunar sunset and will continue operating for a few hours into the lunar night before powering down.

      Excitingly, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander has documented its first sunrise on the Moon, marking the commencement of the lunar day and the beginning of surface operations in its new location. The team referred to as Ghost Riders has already begun working with many of the 10 NASA payloads aboard the lander and will resume operations over the next two weeks, extending into the lunar night. As Firefly stated in an update, “Next, Blue Ghost will carry on with NASA payload operations until March 16. In the past two days, our downlinked data has increased from 27 GB to 57 GB, which includes critical scientific information.” So far, surface operations have included deploying the Lunar PlanetVac for lunar regolith sampling, setting up the Electrodynamic Dust Shield while demonstrating dust mitigation, capturing images using SCALPSS, and continuing work on the other payloads.

      You can see the deployed Lunar PlanetVac instrument in this photo:

      The Lunar PlanetVac, created by Honeybee Robotics, was installed on the lunar surface and is visible at the end of Blue Ghost’s surface access arm. This instrument is designed to test a sample collection technique utilizing pneumatics, which operates by shooting a blast of gas at the surface. This action lifts dust and small particles for collection into a chamber for imaging and sieving. If successful, this system could provide a more cost-effective and quicker way to gather samples from the moon compared to more complex robotic arms.

      Georgina has been a space writer at Digital Trends for six years, focusing on human space exploration and planetary subjects.

      Firefly Aerospace has confirmed that all systems are functioning properly with its lunar-bound Blue Ghost spacecraft, which was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 15. The mission team reported that everything is progressing so well that they have decided to cancel a planned controlled adjustment to the spacecraft’s flight path en route to the moon.

      Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost spacecraft has taken a stunning image of Earth as it journeys toward the moon. Firefly shared the picture on X, mentioning that it captures Australia and the nearby area.

      Following its launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 15, Firefly Aerospace’s moon-bound Blue Ghost spacecraft has been orbiting Earth in preparation for a trans-lunar injection maneuver scheduled for just under a week from now. From its current high vantage point above Earth, it has transmitted some remarkable footage over the last couple of weeks, including this clip of our planet that was shared on social media on Monday.

Check out the amazing video of the Blue Ghost spacecraft landing on the moon. Check out the amazing video of the Blue Ghost spacecraft landing on the moon. Check out the amazing video of the Blue Ghost spacecraft landing on the moon. Check out the amazing video of the Blue Ghost spacecraft landing on the moon. Check out the amazing video of the Blue Ghost spacecraft landing on the moon. Check out the amazing video of the Blue Ghost spacecraft landing on the moon. Check out the amazing video of the Blue Ghost spacecraft landing on the moon.

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Check out the amazing video of the Blue Ghost spacecraft landing on the moon.

Firefly Aerospace has unveiled an amazing video that captures the Blue Ghost spacecraft landing on the moon.