[PHOTO] Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Achieves Successful Moon Touchdown & Capture the First Sunrise

A remarkable achievement for Firefly Aerospace and the US space industry as the Blue Ghost Lunar Lander successfully touches down all four legs on the Moon. This makes the space vehicle the second of its kind from a private-sector company to successfully achieve a soft lunar landing.

Update 3 March: First Sunrise

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander has successfully captured its first sunrise on the Moon, marking the beginning of its surface operations. This milestone event signifies the start of a new lunar day for the lander, which will spend the next two weeks conducting a variety of scientific experiments and technology demonstrations.

Successful Touchdown On The Moon

On 15 January 2025, the Blue Ghost Lunar Lander started its journey to the Moon carrying various NASA equipment aboard. Conveying this 6.6-foot payload to orbit was the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from where it started its manoeuvring towards the Moon.

After days en route, the space vessel from Firefly Aerospace has now successfully touched down and is ready to complete its mission. In an official X post, Firefly Aerospace announced that the Blue Ghost Lunar Lander “stuck the landing!”

The aerospace firm also goes on to lay claim to being the “first commercial company in history to achieve a fully successful Moon landing.” However, Intuitive Machines also lays claims to being the first commercial company to achieve a successful Moon landing.

Firefly Aerospace can defend their claim, since the Intuitive Machine lander that touched down on the Moon in February 2024 tipped over after launch. Regardless, this marks a significant step for the US and its lunar missions that aim to pave the way for humans to return to the Moon in the future.

Importance Of The Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Mission

The global space industry is currently in a race to take humans back to the Moon. For this reason, there are a ton of lunar landing missions being planned by various aerospace agencies around the world.

Firefly Aerospace’s successful Moon touchdown keeps the US ahead of the competition. But the struggle for industry dominance doesn’t end with the just completed Firefly Aerospace lunar landing.

In the coming months, the US has laid out a handful of lunar missions with various government and private agencies. These missions will help to pave a way for the return of humans to the Moon.

Aside from staying ahead of the global competition, the Blue Ghost Lunar Lander landed on the Moon with some NASA equipment. These equipments will be put to use on the lunar body to gather data important for Moon exploration.

NASA confirms that all 10 instruments on this flight are healthy and ready to operate. The various lunar findings from the NASA equipments will return to Earth for consideration.