Blue Ghost private lander reaches the Moon intact

The Blue Ghost spacecraft has landed on the moon, making history as the first private lander to “successfully” achieve this feat according to its creator, Firefly Aerospace. The Texas-based commercial aerospace firm announced on Sunday that its lander had “softly touched down on the Moon’s surface in an upright, stable configuration.” This is technically the second private spacecraft to land on the lunar surface. Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander, which touched down last February, was the first US spacecraft to land on the Moon since the 1972 Apollo 17 mission, but its mission was cut short after it toppled over. Having nailed its own landing, Blue Ghost will now spend a full lunar day (about two weeks) performing research operations, including “lunar subsurface drilling, sample collection, X-ray imaging, and dust mitigation experiments.” These experiments aim to provide environmental data and test technologies that will help NASA again land crewed astronaut missions on the Moon. B ... Read full article.