The American space company Firefly Aerospace successfully landed its lunar lander, Blue Ghost 1, on the moon on Sunday at 9:34.
Blue Ghost 1 is the second private lunar lander in history to successfully touch down on the moon. A year ago, the American company Intuitive Machines made the first commercial moon landing.
The landing was broadcast live. The lunar lander touched down near Mons Latreille, a volcanic formation in the Mare Crisium, a lunar sea visible from Earth.
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Blue Ghost 1 was launched on 15 January aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX. The rocket also carried a Japanese lunar lander, Resilience, developed by the company ispace.
Blue Ghost 1 was developed for NASA, which intends to use it for a variety of scientific research. This includes studying lunar dust and analysing the structure and thermal properties of the moon’s interior.
In early 2024, Intuitive Machines achieved a world first for a private company by successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon. Prior to this, only a few countries, starting with the Soviet Union in 1966, had accomplished this feat.
The United States plans to send astronauts to the moon in the near future. After several delays, NASA is now targeting a return by mid-2027.
