Blue Ghost Lands on the Moon – Sky & Telescope

It’s down. In a first for a commercial company, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander made a fully successful landing on the surface of the Moon. The landing occurred in the Mare Crisium on the lunar nearside early on the morning of Sunday, March 2nd at 3:34 a.m. EST / 8:34 UT.

Blue Ghost is aptly named after a rare species of firefly, found only in the Appalachian wilderness. The mission itself is dubbed Ghost Riders in the Sky. Navigation cameras aboard the spacecraft have already provided us with some amazing images of Earth and the Moon en route.

The lander is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which awards contracts to private U.S. companies to ride-share payloads and experiments to the surface of the Moon. CLPS is part of the larger Artemis initiative, which may see humans on and around the Moon in the coming decade.

“Firefly is literally and figuratively over the Moon,” says Jason Kim (Firefly-CEO) in a recent press release. “Our Blue Ghost lunar lander now has a permanent home on the lunar surface with 10 NASA payloads and a plaque with every Firefly employee’s name. This bold unstoppable team has proven we’re well-equipped to deliver reliable, affordable access to the Moon.”

The launch for the mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket occurred early this year on January 15, 2025. The Hakuto R lander from the company iSpace was also aboard the rocket and is headed for its own lunar landing this coming April.

Nine Minutes of Terror

Blue Ghost entered lunar orbit on February 13th. A Descent Orbit Insertion (DOI) command was sent to the lander on March 1st, nine hours prior to landing. This was necessary, as the lander was on the lunar farside and out of signal range at the time when the maneuver had to be executed. After a successful DOI, the lander coasted for the next 20 minutes.

Then, at an elevation of just 12 miles (20 kilometers) above the lunar surface, the lander began the Powered Descent Initiation (PDI) phase. The lander used its own built-in terrain navigation system to verify its position. The 9-minute PDI burn slowed the lander from 1,700 meters per second to 40 m/s (3,800 to 90 mph). During this critical phase, the lander was operating fully autonomously. It had to pitch over from horizontal to vertical and use what’s known as D’Souza Guidance (based on early Apollo rendezvous and landing systems) for final approach.

A final firing of the lander’s Spectre RCS thrusters brought Blue Ghost’s velocity down to just 1 m/s (2 mph), as the navigation hazard avoidance system executed at least two maneuvers to avoid boulders and other hazards for a safe landing.

“Contact light, engine stop!”
Congratulations FireFly Aerospace for Blue Ghost’s Mission 1 successful Moon landing today!
It also marks a new milestone in the collaborations between NASA and private Space companies, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)… pic.twitter.com/Y5psA3qSu9

— Dr. Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) March 2, 2025

Surveying the Mare Crisium Landing Site

The landing at the Mare Crisium site near Mons Latreille was within 100 meters of the expected landing zone. First surface contact of the landing pads was confirmed, and the lander sent back the first images of the surface about 30 minutes after touchdown.

Those first images confirmed that the lander was down and stable. But probably the most iconic image of the mission was sent back by the lander shortly after touchdown, showing the shadow of the lander in the foreground, with the nearly full Earth hanging over the horizon.

Blue Ghost landed near local lunar sunrise, and is expected to operate for one lunar day (two weeks) before succumbing to the cold lunar night.

Now, the 10 payloads onboard will perform surface operations over the next two weeks. These include NASA’s Lunar Instrumentation for Sub-surface Thermal Expansion with Rapidity (LISTER), which will drill 2 to 3 meters (6 to 9 feet) into the surface; the regolith collector Lunar PlanetVac; and the Lunar Global Navigation Satellite System Receiver Experiment, which will demonstrate communications capability on the Moon. The surface access arm for Lunar PlanetVac should deploy within 24 hours of landing.

Once the gimbal on the S-band antenna from the lander’s upper deck is calibrated, we should see higher-resolution images, and science operations will begin. This includes activation of the Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI), which will give us a unique perspective of Earth’s magnetosphere from the Moon’s vantage point.

As the mission progresses, watch for another unique opportunity, as the lander will experience a total solar eclipse from the surface of the Moon, as viewers in the Americas catch a total lunar eclipse on the night on March 13–14. From the Moon, this eclipse should show the solar corona as well as an orange-red ring around Earth; nearby will be Venus and Mercury. If the cameras can capture images with the necessary exposure time, we can expect to see some amazing images of the event.

Also, toward lunar sunset, the team hopes to use the lander’s 360-degree camera to catch the glow of lunar dust, a phenomenon noted by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972.

Check out all of Blue Ghost’s images on the team’s dedicated Flickr page.

Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander is next up for a landing on Thursday, March 6th. Meanwhile, if your skies are clear, be sure to look to the west tonight at the waxing crescent Moon, now home to Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander.