Blue Ghost landed successfully after a 46 -day trip: «We are on the moon» (photos)

A private lunar module that transported a drill, a vacuum and other experiments for NASA landed successfully on the moon this Sunday, after a 46 -day trip.

By Marcia Dunn / Infobae

The space probe will analyze with the help of ten instruments the subsoil, surface and lunar atmosphere as part of the NASA Artemis program.

The Blue Ghost Mission 1 of Firefly Aerospace – second private company in achieving this milestone – alunized at 03h34 hours of the east coast of the United States (08h34 GMT) near Mons Latreille, a volcanic formation of the Mare Crisium, on the northeast face of the moon.

The landing module Blue Ghost of Firefly Aerospace He descended from the lunar orbit with autopilot, pointing to the slopes of an old volcanic dome in an impact basin on the northeast edge on the nearby side of the moon.

The confirmation of the successful landing came from the company’s mission control center on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, after the action that occurred at about 225,000 miles (360,000 kilometers) away.

«We are on the moon»the mission control center reported, adding that the landing module was «stable.»

A soft and vertical landing converts Firefly, a startup founded a decade ago, in the first private company to put a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling. Even countries have failed, and Only five claim to be successful: Russia, the United States, China, India and Japan.

Two other probes from other companies are following in the footsteps of Blue Ghost, and it is expected that the next one will join her on the moon at the end of this week.

The Blue Ghost landing module is orbiting the moon and prepares to descend. (Firefly Aerospace)

Blue Ghost, who receives his name from a kind of unusual fireflies in the United States, had a size and way that made it very attractive. He four -legged landing module measures 2 meters high and 3.5 meters widewhich provides additional stability, according to the company.

The landing module, which was launched in mid -January from Florida, brought 10 experiments to the NASA. The space agency paid 101 million dollars for shipping, plus 44 million dollars for science and technology on board. It is the third mission of the NASA Commercial Lunar Delivery Program, whose objective is to boost a lunar economy of private companies that compete with each other while the environment is explored before astronauts arrive at the end of this decade.

The demonstrations should last two weeks, before the lunar day ends and the landing module is turned off.

He carried a vacuum to suck the lunar dust to analyze it and a drill to measure the temperature at a depth of up to 3 meters under the surface. He also had a device on board to eliminate abrasive lunar dust, a plague for the old NASA lunar walkers in the Apollo mission, which had him embedded in his space costumes and in his team.

The Moon passes by the Blue Ghost spacecraft of Firefly Aerospace before its landing, on February 24, 2025, in this screenshot extracted from a video. Firefly Aerospace/TMX/Brochure via Reuters

On his way to the moon, Blue Ghost sent exquisite images of the planet of origin. The landing module continued to surprise once in orbit around the moon, with detailed images of the grayish surface and full of moon marks. At the same time, an on -board receptor tracked and acquired signs of the US GPS constellations and Galileo of Europe, an encouraging advance in navigation for future explorers.

The landing prepared the stage for a new wave of visitors in search of a lunar business piece.

Another landing module, a high and thin vehicle of 4 meters high built and operated by intuitive machines, based in Houston, will land on the moon on Thursday. Its objective is to reach the base of the Moon, just 160 kilometers from the South Pole. That is closer to the pole than the company arrived last year with its first landing module, which broke a leg and overturned.

Despite the fall, the Intuitive Machines landing module put the United States again on the moon for the first time since NASA astronauts closed the Apollo program in 1972.

The Private Blue Ghost lunar module after alunizing with NASA experiments, on Sunday, March 2, 2025. (NASA/Firefly Aerospace Via Ap)

There are still three months left to land a third module of the Japanese company ISPACE. On January 15, he shared a rocket trip with Blue Ghost from Cabo Cañaveral, following a longer route with more curves. Like intuitive machines, Ispace is also trying to land on the moon for the second time. His first landing module crashed in 2023.

The moon is full of remains not only of the ISPACE, but also of dozens of other failed attempts over the decades.

NASA wants to maintain the pace of two private lunar landing modules a year, recognizing that some missions will fail, said the main scientific official of the space agency, Nicky Fox.

Unlike the successful alunizages of the NASA Apollo program, which had billions of dollars of support and star astronauts in command, private companies operate with a limited budget and with robotic ships that must land for themselves, said Firefly executive director Jason Kim.

Kim said everything came out like a clock.

«We have some lunar dust in our boots,» Kim said.

(With AP information)