Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down on the Moon early Sunday morning. The landing happened near Mons Latreille, a volcanic spot in Mare Crisium. This basin stretches over 300 miles across the Moon’s northeast side. The lander stands upright and steady after a smooth delivery.

A NASA press release emphasizes that NASA’s CLPS program, short for Commercial Lunar Payload Services, aims to use private companies for Moon missions. SpaceNews notes that “the successful landing was a milestone for the CLPS program, NASA’s efforts to develop commercial capabilities that the agency could use to deliver science and technology payloads to the moon at lower costs than conventional government-led missions.”

Blue Ghost marks Firefly’s first lunar landing and their first CLPS job. The lander carries 10 NASA instruments. These tools will work for about 14 Earth days, or one lunar day.

Janet Petro, NASA’s acting chief, says that this shows how NASA and U.S. firms lead in space. The tools on Blue Ghost will teach lessons for better science and safer spacecraft.

Toward bigger missions and human stays on the Moon

The lander launched from Florida on January 15. It traveled 2.8 million miles and sent back 27 GB of data. During the trip, it tested cool stuff. The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment tracked signals 246,000 miles away. GNSS means Global Navigation Satellite System, like GPS on Earth. Other tests checked radiation-proof computing and space magnetic fields.

NASA states that this mission prepares the way for bigger missions and human stays on the Moon.

Over 14 days, the mission will gather data for future Moon and Mars trips. So far, five companies got 11 CLPS deals. They’re sending over 50 tools to spots like the lunar South Pole. These contracts max out at $2.6 billion through 2028.

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