Private Blue Ghost moon lander captures amazing footage of Earth behind and lunar surface below (video)
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Firefly Aerospace is primed for a lunar landing attempt on Sunday (March 2) following a series of successful maneuvers in lunar orbit.
The company's Blue Ghost lander entered lunar orbit on Feb. 13, after launching atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 15. It has since been lowering its orbit in preparation for a moon landing and is now all set for the upcoming attempt.
"Blue Ghost's third and final lunar orbit maneuver is complete! Early this morning, our #GhostRiders performed a 16-second burn with our RCS thrusters to enter a near-circular low lunar orbit," Texas-based Firefly stated in a post on the social media platform X today (Feb. 24).
A video embedded in the post shows footage of the heavily cratered lunar surface from the vantage point of the Blue Ghost spacecraft, also capturing the distant Earth and the dazzling sun, which causes lens flare. The footage was taken as Blue Ghost orbited the moon following an earlier lunar orbit maneuver. The engine burns have set up Blue Ghost for a moon landing attempt on Sunday.
"Up next, we'll perform a 19-second Descent Orbit Insertion at our 100-km perilune to begin our descent to Blue Ghost's final destination, Mare Crisium, on March 2," the Firefly post read.
Related: Welcome to the moon! Firefly's Blue Ghost lander reaches lunar orbit (video, photos)
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— Blue Ghost moon lander sees Earth as a 'blue marble' from orbit (photo)
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— Here's what NASA is sending to the moon on Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander
The mission, named "Ghost Riders in the Sky," is one of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions. CLPS was established as part of the Artemis program to contract private companies to deliver the agency's science payloads to the moon.
The lander is carrying 10 NASA payloads with science objectives including studying the lunar regolith, or the moon's dusty surface, the lunar radiation environment and the solar wind.
Blue Ghost is aiming to become the second private lander to successfully soft-land on the moon, just over a year after Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lander. If all goes well, the solar-powered spacecraft will operate on the surface of the moon for one lunar day, or about 14 Earth days, with lunar sunset expected to bring an end to the mission.
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