CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — It’s lights out for the first private lunar lander to pull off a fully successful moon mission .
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 firm’s lunar lander hitched a ride on a SpaceX rocket but opted for a more extended journey to reach the moon. The ispace lander is aiming for an early June landing.
A different Texan firm, Intuitive Machines, recently found itself halted inside a crater close to the lunar south pole, thereby jeopardizing the mission. This marks their second unsuccessful endeavor. Their initial spacecraft had previously returned the U.S. to the Moon last year—the nation’s return trip since the Apollo days—despite an imperfect touchdown that interfered with communication capabilities.
Firefly is currently developing its next lunar lander with the aim of achieving at least one moon landing per year.
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