Blue Ghost captured this shot of the lunar surface February 21st. 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.
Mission progress, as detailed by Firefly Aerospace courtesy: Firefly
NASA Instruments OK, Are Active
Blue Ghost 1, during Launch Vehicle Integration prior to liftoff last month. 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.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander captures image of Earth reflecting off the solar panel with the Moon on the horizon above Earth. Firefly’s X-band antenna and NASA’s LEXI payload are also shown on the top deck of the lander. Credit: Firefly Aerospace
A SpaceX Falcon 9 roared off the launch pad at 1:11 AM EST this morning from Kennedy Space Center carrying two lunar landers into orbit and on their way to the moon.
SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center on January 15, 2025.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
The second stage and lunar landers achieved their initial orbits at seven minutes and forty-nine seconds into the flight, and that orbit was modified fifty-eight minutes and twenty-four seconds later by a relatively long one minute and one second second burn by the second stage prior to payload deployment.
Around eight minutes and twenty seconds after lifting off, Booster B1085 completed its 5th mission when it touched down safely on ASDS ‘Just Read The Instructions’, which was stationed offshore downrange. JRTI and B1085 will now return to Port Canaveral for offloading and preparation for B1085’s next flight.
At 2:18 AM EST, SpaceX confirmed the deployment of the Firefly Blue Ghost Lander:
Blue Ghost will begin a roughly 45-day journey to the Moon, where it will land on Mare Crisium. It will then conduct numerous experiments for NASA and the Artemis Program, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface in this decade.
At 2:45 AM, SpaceX confirmed the successful deployment of the iSpace HAKUTO-R lander:
“We have established communication with the RESILIENCE lander, and have stabilized its attitude and power supply,” said Takeshi Hakamada, Founder & CEO of ispace. “We will make full use of the knowledge and experience gained in Mission 1 to prepare for the first orbit control maneuver scheduled in the near future. While the lander carries 6 payloads including the TENACIOUS micro rover, no deficiencies in the lander’s core system have been identified.”
The deployment of HAKUTO-R concluded the customer portion of SpaceX’s flight.
Payloads
Firefly Blue Ghost Lunar Lander
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander is designed to deliver a suite of scientific instruments and commercial payloads to the Moon’s surface. Developed under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, Blue Ghost aims to demonstrate innovative technologies while advancing lunar science.
Joining Blue Ghost is the Hakuto-R lunar lander, developed by iSpace, a Japanese company dedicated to expanding humanity’s presence on the Moon. Hakuto-R is part of iSpace’s bold vision to establish a lunar economy through cargo delivery services and resource utilization.
Artist’s rendering of HAKUTO ‘Resilience’ on the lunar surface. Credit: iSpace
Key objectives for Hakuto-R include:
Demonstrating landing and operational capabilities on the lunar surface.
Delivering payloads for commercial customers.
Advancing technologies to enable sustainable lunar operations.
Payloads
On board the RESILIENCE lunar lander will be commercial customer payloads including:
· Water electrolyzer equipment: From Takasago Thermal Engineering Co.
· Food production experiment: A self-contained module from Euglena Co.
· Deep space radiation probe: Developed by the Department of Space Science and Engineering, National Central University, Taiwan
· Commemorative alloy plate: Developed by Bandai Namco Research Institute, Inc. and modeled after “Charter of the Universal Century” from the animation Mobile Suit Gundam UC
· TENACIOUS micro rover: Developed by ispace-EUROPE, this rover will explore the landing site, collect lunar regolith, and relay data back to the lander. It will be equipped with a forward-mounted HD camera and a shovel.
· Moonhouse: A model house by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg that will be mounted on the rover.
The RESILIENCE lander will serve as a cultural artifact, carrying a UNESCO memory disk that preserves linguistic and cultural diversity.
For more details about Hakuto-R and iSpace’s ambitions, visit their official website.
iSpace infographic on the key milestones for the HAKUTO MISSION 2 ‘Resilience’ lander. Click the graphic to enlarge. Credit: iSpace
What’s Next?
iSpace announced today that mission operations specialists in the HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo have established a communication link with the RESILIENCE lunar lander and confirmed a stable attitude as well as stable generation of electrical power in orbit.
iSpace provided this chart illustrating the progress of the mission early this morning:
HAKUTO-R ‘RESILIENCE’ mission status as of 7:01 AM EDT on January 15. 2025
From Firefly, the Blue Ghost lander next steps are
Transit: Blue Ghost will spend approximately 45 days in transit to the Moon, including about 25 days in Earth orbit, 4 days in lunar transit, and 16 days in lunar orbit.
Descent: Blue Ghost’s final autonomous descent will take approximately an hour, starting with a Descent Orbit Insertion burn that will place Blue Ghost on its descent trajectory.
Surface Operations: Upon touchdown, Blue Ghost will operate 10 NASA instruments for a complete lunar day (about 14 Earth days).
Total Eclipse:Just before lunar night, Blue Ghost will capture HD imagery of a total eclipse from the Moon where the Earth blocks the sun.
Lunar Night: At the end of the mission, Blue Ghost will capture the lunar sunset before operating several hours into the lunar night.
Launch Replay
Next Launch
Blue Origin plans to make a second attempt to launch its New Glenn rocket on its debut mission
Date: NET January 16, 2025
Organization: Blue Origin
Mission: NG-1
Rocket: New Glenn
Launch Site: LC-36, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Launch Window: 01:00 – 04:00 EST (0600-0900 UTC)
Payload: Blue Ring Pathfinder
Note: this article was prepared using information and text from iSpace and Firefly Aerospace.
Due to its final position on the lunar surface, Intuitive Machine’s IM-1 Nova-C “Odysseus” lander will cease operations within 24 hours. That will be two days earlier than planned. Still, IM said in an update this morning that they continue receiving data from the first American lunar lander to successfully touch down on the moon’s surface in over fifty years.
IM-1 approximately 30 meters above the lunar surface. Photo: Intuitive Machines
Flight Controllers continue to communicate with Odysseus. This morning, Odysseus efficiently sent payload science data and imagery in furtherance of the Company’s mission objectives. Flight controllers are working on final determination of battery life on the lander, which may continue up to an additional 10-20 hours.
The images included here are the closest observations of any spaceflight mission to the south pole region of the Moon. Odysseus is quite the photographer, capturing this image approximately 30 meters above the lunar surface while his main engine throttled down more than 24,000 mph. Another day of exploration on the south pole region of the Moon. (27FEB2024 0835 CST)
After the lander is in the darkness of lunar night and its batteries are exhausted, the mission will end. That endpoint was originally scheduled for sometime Thursday, February 29th, but will occur early due to the angle and final resting position of Odysseus. Because it is on its side, rather than standing vertically, the amount and strength the lander receives to provide power through its solar panels is less than optimal.
As for the final results of the experiments aboard Odysseus, we will have to wait for them to be released by NASA and Intuitive Machines.
Next CLPS Missions
While IM-1 is near its end, NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program is really just getting started with planned lunar landings in support of both the Artemis program to return humans to the moon and also lunar science in general.
Firefly Aerospace
Blue Ghost M1, by Firefly Aerospace, is set to launch in the third quarter of this year aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. “Firefly is excited and ready for our Blue Ghost Mission 1,” Trina Patterson, VP of Marketing and Communications told Talk of Titusville. “We got next!”
Blue Ghost lander image: Firefly Aerospace
The 2 x 3.5 meter spacecraft’s landing target is MareCrisium (Latin for “Sea of Crises”) a spot that is barely visible to observers with the naked eye. It will, according to Firefly, carry “ten NASA-sponsored payloads” and is designed to last “for an entire lunar day (about 14 Earth days), and well into the freezing lunar night.”
Mare Crisium on the lunar surface.
Intuitive Machines IM-2
In the fourth quarter of this year, Intuitive Machines will try again with IM-2, its second Nova-C lander. It will land in the southern polar region of the moon, this time carrying a drill (PRIME-1) combined with a mass spectrometer, to attempt harvesting ice from below the surface among other experiments. Like IM-1 and Firefly’s Blue Ghost M1, IM-2 is planned to fly aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on its initial journey to space.
Astrobotics, the Pennsylvania company that built the Peregrine lander that failed to reach the moon earlier this year, has its VIPER lander slated to head towards the lunar South Pole region later this year as well.
2025 will also see multiple CLPS missions to the lunar surface. Intuitive Machines, Firefly and Draper Laboratories all have missions penciled in for next year.
You must be logged in to post a comment.