A privately owned lunar lander equipped with a drill, vacuum equipment and other experimental equipment for NASA has successfully landed on the moon, becoming the latest in a series of companies seeking to do business on our celestial neighbor before sending astronauts.
Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on Sunday in automated mode, aiming for the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the northeastern side of the visible moon.
Confirmation of a successful landing came from the company's mission control center near Austin, Texas, after the incident, which occurred about 225,000 miles away.
“You're all stuck on landing. We're on the moon,” said Firefly's Will Coogan, the lander's chief engineer.
The successful vertical and stable landing makes Firefly, a startup founded ten years ago, the first private company to send a vehicle to the Moon without crashing.
Even government institutions have failed, and only five countries have claimed success: Russia, the United States, China, India and Japan.
Half an hour after landing, Blue Ghost began transmitting images from the surface, the first of which was a selfie, slightly darkened by sunlight.
Landers from two more companies are approaching Blue Ghost, and the next one is expected on the Moon as early as this week.
Named after a rare American firefly species, the Blue Ghost has its own unique size and shape. The squat, four-legged module stands 6 feet 6 inches tall and 11 feet wide, giving it extra stability, according to the company.
Launched in mid-January from Florida, it carried 10 experiments to the Moon for Nasa. The space agency paid $101 million (£80 million) for the delivery, plus $44 million (£35 million) for the science and technology on board.
It is the third mission in NASA's Commercial Lunar Resupply Program, which is designed to stimulate the development of a lunar economy that includes competing private enterprises and to conduct reconnaissance studies of the area before astronauts arrive later this decade.
Firefly's Ray Allensworth said the lander cleared all obstacles, including boulders, and landed safely. He noted that the team is still analyzing data to determine the lander's exact location, but all indications are that it landed within the 328-foot target zone in Mare Crisium.
The demo versions should function for two weeks, until the end of the lunar day and landing
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
