Sunday09 March 2025
ps-ua.com

The Blue Ghost spacecraft has landed on the Moon and is transmitting images from the surface, starting with a selfie.

Just half an hour after a successful landing, the Blue Ghost spacecraft began transmitting images from the surface.
Космический аппарат Blue Ghost приземлился на Луну и отправил первые снимки с ее поверхности: в числе первых — селфи.

The private lander module Blue Ghost from Firefly Aerospace successfully landed on the northeastern edge of the visible side of the Moon in the Sea of Crises on Sunday, March 2. This stable landing made the ten-year-old startup the first private company to send a spacecraft to Earth's natural satellite without any crashes or mishaps, reports AP.

The spacecraft departed from Earth's orbit on February 8 and entered lunar orbit on February 13. The lander module spent 16 days circling the Moon at an altitude of approximately 100 kilometers.

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Before entering the descent orbit, the lander was traveling at a speed of 5,897 kilometers per hour, and prior to landing, Blue Ghost reduced its speed to about 1 meter per second.

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Initially, it was planned for Blue Ghost to land on Mount Latreille in the Sea of Crises, as this area helps avoid significant magnetic interference on the lunar surface that could disrupt some measurements. As it turned out, the landing was executed within acceptable error margins.

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Half an hour after landing, Blue Ghost began transmitting photos from the surface, the first of which was a slightly overexposed selfie.

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The second image featured the blue dot of Earth shimmering against the darkness of space.

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Blue Ghost also captured an image of its shadow on the lunar surface.

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As reported by CNN, after landing, Blue Ghost will deploy its X-band antenna to transmit a wealth of data from the Moon, and over the course of two weeks, mission teams will gather the transmitted information.

On March 14, Blue Ghost will witness a solar eclipse as Earth casts a shadow on the landing site, soon plunging it into the lunar night. Before nightfall, Blue Ghost will attempt to photograph the "glow of the lunar horizon"—a phenomenon during which lunar dust briefly rises into the air.

Upon completing its mission, Blue Ghost will remain on the lunar surface for an indefinite period.

As a reminder, at the end of January, the lander module Blue Ghost took an astonishing photo of Earth while preparing to enter orbit around the Moon.