It's lights out for the first private lunar lander to pull off a fully successful moon mission, reports the AP. Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander fell silent over the weekend, wrapping up two weeks of science experiments for NASA. The end came as the sun set at the moon, no longer providing energy for the lander's solar panels. "Mission is completed," Firefly CEO Jason Kim said via X late Sunday night. "But the Ghost still lives on in our hearts and minds for the journey it's taken us on!" The lander operated five hours into the lunar night as planned before it died Sunday evening. Photos of the lunar sunset and glow will be released on Tuesday, Kim said.
Blue Ghost launched from Cape Canaveral in January as part of NASA's commercial lunar delivery program. It landed at the moon's far northeastern edge on March 2. It carried a drill, vacuum, and other science and tech instruments for NASA. Firefly confirmed Monday that all 10 experiments worked. Late last week, Blue Ghost observed a total solar eclipse from the moon—a total lunar eclipse as seen from Earth. The Texas-based Firefly became the first private company to land on the moon without falling or crashing after a string of failed missions by other companies over the past few years. Only five countries—the United States, Russia, China, India, and Japan—have achieved a successful landing.
A Japanese company's lunar lander shared the SpaceX rocket ride, but took an even longer route to get to the moon. That lander from ispace is targeting an early June touchdown. Another Texas company, Intuitive Machines, ended up sideways in a crater near the moon's south pole earlier this month, dooming the mission. It was the second incomplete mission for Intuitive Machines. Its first lander put the US back on the moon last year for the first time since the Apollo era after a less-than-perfect landing that hampered communications. Firefly is already working on its next lunar lander and striving for one moon landing a year.
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