The Blue Ghost lander bid farewell to the Moon by gently going into that cold lunar night. Before ending its mission on the lunar surface, Blue Ghost watched a beautiful sunset, capturing the glow of the Sun’s light slowly fading over the Moon’s horizon.
Firefly Aerospace released the final footage captured by its lunar lander, blessing us with incredible views of the Sun setting from the surface of the Moon. The Texas-based company ended its first mission to the Moon on Sunday, March 16, having spent a full lunar day on the dusty surface (or the equivalent of 14 days on Earth). Blue Ghost spent about five hours in the lunar night before succumbing to the cold temperatures of the dark (the lander wasn’t built to survive the lunar night).
The minute-long video is made up of images captured by Blue Ghost’s different cameras, which were then stitched together to create the footage. Earth and Venus make a special appearance in the video, shining just above the surface of the Moon. The team behind the mission at NASA will further analyze the images and share the findings.
NASA captured another, albeit less-cinematic view of the lunar sunset using one of its payloads delivered aboard Blue Ghost. One of the six Stereo Cameras for Lunar-Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) 1.1 cameras on the lander caught the shadow stretching across the Moon’s surface.
Firefly’s lunar lander touched down on the lunar surface on Sunday, March 2, packed with 10 NASA instruments designed to probe the lunar surface and gather data to support future human missions to the Moon. The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative to send payloads to the Moon on a regular basis using commercial spacecraft.
Credit: NASA/Olivia Tyrrell
Blue Ghost completed 14 days of surface operations, deploying its various payloads and transmitting more than 119 gigabytes of data back to Earth. This was the longest commercial mission on the Moon to date, and the first of a series of landers designed to touch down on the lunar surface on a yearly basis.
Firefly has shared some incredible footage captured by its lander throughout the duration of its mission. The spacecraft captured an awe-inspiring video of its descent toward the heavily cratered lunar surface. Blue Ghost also captured a total solar eclipse from the Moon on March 14, while Earth simultaneously experienced a total lunar eclipse.
With its “Ghost Riders to the Sky” mission, Firefly became the second company to land on the Moon and the first to do it with its lander ending up in an upright position (Intuitive Machines landed on the Moon in February 2024, but its Odysseus lander tipped over on its side). The company is already preparing for its second mission to the lunar surface, and hopes to be able to touch down on the lunar surface every year.