Firefly Aerospace is now less than 4 days from landing on the Moon and just released more footage captured during Blue Ghost’s third lunar orbit maneuver on February 24 that inserted the spacecraft in a near-circular low lunar orbit. The video, sped up by 10X, was taken about 100 km above the lunar surface, showing the far side of the Moon and a top-down view of Blue Ghost’s RCS thrusters (center) and radiator panels on each side. The radiator panels are moving nominally to protect Blue Ghost’s subsystems from extreme temperatures.
You can find the new video on our Live Blog and follow along for regular mission updates.
Landing Livestream
Blue Ghost will reach her final destination no earlier than 2:34 am CST on March 2. They’ll start the joint livestream with @NASA at 1:20 am CST, approximately 75 minutes before we touch down on the surface. Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 Lunar Landing – YouTube
During the final hour of descent, Blue Ghost uses vision-based terrain relative navigation and hazard avoidance to measure the lander’s position and identify craters, slopes, and rocks before selecting the final hazard-free target within the landing zone. Blue Ghost’s RCS thrusters pulse as needed throughout the descent for a soft landing.
Next Steps
- Descent: Blue Ghost’s final autonomous descent will take approximately an hour, starting with Descent Orbit Insertion, a 19-second burn at our 100-km perilune that will place Blue Ghost on its final descent trajectory on March 2.
- Surface Operations: Upon touchdown, Blue Ghost will operate 10 NASA instruments for a complete lunar day (about 14 Earth days).
- Total Eclipse: On March 14, Blue Ghost will capture HD imagery of a total eclipse from the Moon where the Earth blocks the sun.
- Lunar Night: Blue Ghost will then capture the lunar sunset on March 16 before operating several hours into the lunar night.
