Credit: Firefly Aerospace
In preparation for landing, Firely Aerospace’s Blue Ghost will complete its final lunar orbit maneuver, which is scheduled for today. If that is successful, on March 2nd, Firefly Aerospace will reach its destination and attempt a lunar landing.
The attempt will be the first for the company and if successful, they will be only the second American company (after Intuitive Machines) to safely reach the lunar surface. The lander has been traveling cislunar space since shortly after its January 15th launch from Kennedy Space Center.
Early Monday morning, during the final lunar orbit maneuver, Firefly will execute a 16-second burn to insert Blue Ghost into a near-circular, low lunar orbit with a perilune of about 100 km—the point closest to the Moon’s surface. This maneuver strategically positions Blue Ghost for the planned Descent Orbit Insertion on March 2.
courtesy: Firefly
NASA Instruments OK, Are Active
Photo: Firefly Aerospace.
According to NASA, “All 10 NASA instruments on this flight are currently healthy and ready to operate on the lunar surface. The payloads that are able to power on and operate have also collected some noteworthy data during lunar transit.”
Illustrating that point, NASA said
The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) acquired and tracked Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals for the first time in lunar orbit – a new record! This achievement, peaking at 246,000 miles, suggests that Earth-based GNSS constellations can be used for navigation in transit to, around, and potentially on the Moon. It also demonstrates the power of using multiple GNSS constellations together, such as GPS and Galileo, to perform navigation. After lunar landing, LuGRE will operate for 14 days and attempt to break another record – first reception of GNSS signals on the lunar surface.
The Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager, or LEXI, telescope was turned on successfully shortly after launch on Jan. 15. The instrument has operated for several hours every day conducting checkouts and initial commissioning, operating for a total of more than 50 hours so far in preparation for collecting images from the lunar surface.
NASA Artemis Blog, February 21, 2025
All other instruments aboard Blue Ghost are also functioning well and are apparently ready for the landing attempt the coming Sunday.
How To Watch
Live coverage of the landing, jointly hosted by NASA and Firefly, will air on NASA+ starting at 2:30 a.m. EST, approximately 75 minutes before Blue Ghost touches down on the Moon’s surface.
