According to Firefly, it is the first private company to make a “fully successful” soft landing on the moon.
Firefly Aerospace, a private space company based in the USA, has successfully landed his Blue Ghost spacecraft for a two-week research mission for a two-week research mission in a race between a handful of private companies.
The touchdown took place on Sunday at 3:35 a.m. US East Coast period (8:35 am GMT) in the mare Crisium region, a prominent moon pool that is visible from the earth.
Firefly becomes a second private company that reaches a moon landing, and the company is the first to explain a “completely successful” soft landing.
Intuitive machines from Houston had a one -sided hard landing with his Odysseus Lunar Lander last year, which was mostly intact, but many of his instruments on board were damaged.
The Firefly mission is part of the Commercial Lunar Payoad Services program of NASA, which tries to use the private industry to support the agency’s return to the moon. The Blue Ghost wore 10 scientific and technological payloads, including NASA instruments, to examine moon dust, radiation and surface materials.
Important instruments on board measure the internal heat flow of the moon and prevent the accumulation of moon dust for devices and include a retro defect for laser readiness experiments.
The spaceship was launched on January 15 on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Floridas Kennedy Space Center.
Firefly plans to pursue two additional Blue Ghost missions 2026 and 2028 that are expected to provide more scientific payloads and support the long-term moon destinations of NASA.
The reigning NASA administrator Janet Petro said on Sunday at Firefly’s Landing event that the moon remains part of the US target to “dominate” the space.
Success underlines the growing role of private companies in space research, since NASA and other agencies are increasingly dependent on commercial partners in order to achieve scientific and technological breakthroughs.
A large number of other countries also promote their own moon efforts, including China with its robot chang’s program and plans to put the Chinese astronauts on the surface of the moon by 2030.
