The firk Firefly achieves its first landing of the moon with the space ship Blue Ghost | Space news
Firefly says she is the first private company to make a ‘completely successful’ soft landing on the moon.
Firefly Aerospace, a private space companion based in the United States, successfully landed its space spacecraft Blue Ghost on the moon for a two -week research mission in the middle of a race between a few private companies.
The Touchdown happened at 3:35 pm of the US East Coast (08:35 GMT) on Sunday in the Mare Crisium region, a prominent lunar pool visible from Earth.
Firefly becomes the second private company that has achieved a landing of the moon with a company that has declared itself the first to make a “completely successful” soft landing.
Intuitive Machines with headquarters in Houston last year had a hard landing with their Odysseus Lunar Landerwhich came out mostly intact, but many of its built -in instruments were damaged.
The Firefly mission is part of NASA’s commercial program of lunar loads, which seeks to use the private industry to support the return of the agency to the moon. The blue spirit carried 10 scientific and technological useful loads, including the NASA instruments intended for the study of lunar dust, radiation and surface materials.
Key instruments on board will measure the lunar internal heat flow and prevent the accumulation of lunar dust on the equipment and include a retroreflector for experiments in the laser.
The spacecraft was launched on the ship Spacex Falcon 9 rockets from Florida Kennedy Space Center 15. January.
Firefly plans to follow two additional Blue Ghost missions in 2026 and 2028, which is expected to provide more scientific useful loads and support NASA long-term lunar goals.
Acting administrator Nasa Janet Petro said on Sunday that she was at an event for landing Firefly that the Moon remained a part of the US goal to “dominate” space.
Success emphasizes the growing role of private companies in the exploration of the universe, as NASA and other agencies rely more and more on commercial partners to achieve scientific and technological breakthroughs.
The host of other countries also progresses in their own lunar efforts, including China with its robot Chang’e program and plans to put Chinese astronauts on the surface of the month until 2030.
