Lunar lander captures stunning views of moon ahead of descent: See images taken by Blue Ghost
Firefly Aerospace's lander documented the stunning sight amid maneuvers to get the spacecraft closer and closer to the lunar surface ahead of a landing attempt planned for Sunday.
The Blue Ghost lunar lander has captured a striking up-close view of Earth's cosmic neighbor as it prepares in the days ahead to land on the moon.
Firefly Aerospace, the Texas-based company operating the spacecraft, shared the incredible video and imagery days after the lander entered lunar orbit on its 45-day expedition to the surface. The view is of the moon's far side, an area not visible to Earth, and shows our planet rising and setting behind the celestial body.
The Blue Ghost lander documented the stunning sight amid maneuvers to get the spacecraft closer and closer to the lunar surface ahead of a landing attempt planned for the early hours of Sunday, March 2. The spacecraft, which launched Jan. 15 from Florida, will soon have some competition when another lander manufactured by Intuitive Machines potentially launches Wednesday on a much shorter eight-day voyage.
Having traveled 2.2 million miles, all 10 payloads Blue Ghost is delivering for NASA "remain healthy," Firefly said in an update on its blog.
Blue Ghost captures Earth rising, setting behind moon
Blue Ghost, which left Earth's orbit behind a few days before entering lunar orbit Feb. 13, completed its third and final engine burn Sunday night to position it as close to the moon as it can get before touching down on the near side.
But it was during its second lunar orbit engine burn that Blue Ghost captured incredible footage of the moon’s far side. Shortly after firing its engines Feb. 18, the spacecraft caught a glimpse of the moon taken about 75 miles above the surface that shows the Earth rising and setting.
In the footage, the lander's solar panel and X-band antenna can be seen at the left. On the right, an instrument known as the Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) can be seen.
Up next, Blue Ghost will prepare to descend for touch down on the moon in process targeted to conclude Sunday, March 2 at 3:45 a.m. EST.
The landing site is near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille. The region is located within Mare Crisium, a 300-mile-wide basin in the northeast quadrant of the moon's near side, that is believed to have been created by early volcanic eruptions and flooded with basaltic lava more than 3 billion years ago.
How to watch Blue Ghost lunar landing
Live coverage of the landing, jointly hosted by Firefly and NASA, will air on NASA+ starting at 2:30 a.m. EST, approximately 75 minutes before the scheduled touch down on the moon’s surface. The broadcast will also stream on Firefly’s YouTube channel.
Additionally, NASA will provide written updates on its Artemis blog.
What is Blue Ghost's lunar mission?
Firefly's spacecraft is on a mission to deliver and help test a fleet of NASA's scientific instruments to study the moon's environment before humans return.
The 10 instruments Blue Ghost is transporting to the moon, which NASA said constitute the largest delivery to date under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS, will be put to use for a complete lunar day, equivalent to about 14 Earth days.
The instruments, many of which have been tested in transit to the moon, are for things like lunar subsurface drilling, sample collection, X-ray imaging and dust mitigation. The data NASA hopes to collect should also provide insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces affect Earth.
Blue Ghost also plans to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse as the Earth blocks the sun just before a lunar sunset ushers in frigid lunar night on March 16.
Why is NASA interested in the moon?
The mission comes as NASA prepares to send American astronauts back to the moon's surface under its Artemis campaign – the agency's first lunar program since the Apollo missions came to an end in 1972.
NASA envisions the moon as being a crucial pit stop to prepare U.S. astronauts and their vehicles to travel onward to Mars. For that reason, the U.S. space agency is paying a slew of private companies to develop uncrewed lunar landers to help pave the way for astronauts to return as early as 2027.
Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based company that made history in 2024 with the first commercial lunar landing, is preparing to send another spacecraft back to the moon in the days ahead. If its lander, named Athena, manages to launch on schedule Wednesday night, it could be landing as soon as March 6 on the moon's south pole.
There, it will deploy a fleet of scientific instruments, including some NASA water-hunting technology.
NASA's Artemis campaign envisions the moon as being a crucial pit stop to prepare U.S. astronauts and their vehicles to travel onward to Mars.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for Paste BN. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com