Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander went gently into the lunar night after spending a full lunar day on the Moon, gathering data and beaming it back to Earth as part of the company’s first commercial drop-off mission.
Blue Ghost sent its final transmission on Sunday at 7:15 p.m. ET, wrapping up the longest private mission on the Moon to date. Firefly’s lander touched down on the lunar surface on Sunday, March 2, landing in an ancient impact site known as Mare Crisium. After pulling off a flawless touchdown, Blue Ghost got to work on the Moon’s dusty surface. The lander completed 14 days of surface operations, deploying its various payloads and transmitting more than 119 gigabytes of data back to Earth. This was the longest the mission could last, as Blue Ghost is not built to survive the frigid lunar night.
“There is no such thing as an easy Moon landing, especially on your first attempt,” Will Coogan, chief engineer of the Blue Ghost mission at Firefly Aerospace, said in a statement. “We battle tested every system on the lander and simulated every mission scenario we could think of to get to this point.”
Firefly Aerospace’s first mission to the Moon, named “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” was packed with 10 NASA instruments designed to probe the lunar surface and gather data to support future human missions to the Moon as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Some of the key takeaways from the mission’s payload operations include using GPS-like signals to navigate future missions to the Moon, understanding how engine plumes affect the surface of the Moon, and using an electrodynamic dust shield to remove lunar regolith from glass and thermal radiator surfaces.
In addition to these payloads, Texas-based Firefly performed some work of its own on the Moon. Blue Ghost captured a total solar eclipse from the Moon on March 14, while Earth simultaneously experienced a total lunar eclipse. Two days later, Blue Ghost caught a lunar sunset, with Earth appearing over the lunar horizon.
After the Sun set on the Moon, Blue Ghost operated for around five hours into the lunar night before bidding farewell to its mission team. Firefly claims that Blue Ghost met “100 percent of its mission objectives.” The company is now gearing up to send annual missions to the Moon, and is already in the process of putting together its Blue Ghost mission 2, which will land on the far side of the Moon.
With its first mission, Firefly became the second company to land on the Moon. Intuitive Machines was the first one to do it in February 2024, but its Odysseus lander tipped over on its side after a not-so-ideal touchdown. The company’s follow-up mission also ended up on its side and was declared dead shortly after arriving on the Moon on March 6.
