Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander touches down on the moon

Earth is visible in the distance, in this image captured by Blue Ghost following its lunar landing.(Firefly Aerospace)

Texas (USA), March 2 — A robotic lunar lander built by Texas-based company Firefly has successfully landed on the moon, touching down around 2:35 a.m. CT (3:35 a.m. ET).

The lander, called Blue Ghost, launched to orbit on a SpaceX rocket in January, spent some time in Earth’s orbit and had been maneuvering toward the moon ever since.

Firefly has become only the second private-sector company ever to achieve a soft lunar landing. Several have failed in the past.

Firefly is carrying out this mission as a contractor under NASA’s CLPS and Artemis programs, which aim to use robotic landers to scout the moon before humans return later this decade.

Storied NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who is 95, tuned into Sunday’s lunar touchdown.

Aldrin, who walked on the moon with Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, offered his congratulations.

Firefly CEO Jason Kim said he saw the post. “That’s pretty amazing,” he remarked.

During the lander’s space journey from Earth to the moon, Blue Ghost had captured the celestial bodies in various positions of their orbits — including footage of Earth eclipsing the sun, that shows the spacecraft submerged in brief darkness as our planet blocks nearly all of the sun’s light.

But the lander is just getting started — Firefly’s CEO, Jason Kim, previously told CNN that he is excited about sharing images and footage that Blue Ghost captures after landing.

The lander is expected to capture a solar eclipse on March 14, where our planet will block the sun from the moon’s surface and cast Blue Ghost into Earth’s shadow for about five hours.

From Earth, a lunar eclipse will be visible to those in the path of totality.

The lander is also expected to capture a phenomenon during the lunar sunset on March 16, that was first sketched by Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan.

“There’s a phenomenon called the lunar horizon glow (scattered light caused by floating electrostatic particles) that only the Apollo 15 and 17 astronauts have seen with their eyes,” Kim said.

“We’re going to be able to capture that in 4K-by-4K high-definition video and share that with the rest of the world.”