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from https://www.npr.org/2025/03/02/g-s1-51579/private-lunar-lander-blue-ghost-touches-down-on-the-moon

"We're on the moon": private Blue Ghost spacecraft makes an historic
lunar landing
March 2, 20255:43 AM ET
By Joe Hernandez

Private lunar lander Blue Ghost is seen after touching down on the moon
on March 2.

AP/NASA/Firefly Aerospace
A commercial spacecraft carrying NASA experiments successfully touched
down on the moon's surface early Sunday morning, ushering in a new phase
of private space exploration.

American firm Firefly Aerospace, which livestreamed the descent of its
Blue Ghost lunar lander, said the craft arrived on the moon's surface at
3:34 a.m. EST.

"You all stuck the landing. We're on the moon," Blue Ghost chief
engineer Will Coogan said on the livestream, eliciting cheers from the
mission control room.

Several companies have attempted commercial lunar landings in recent
years. A spacecraft sent to the moon by Houston-based Intuitive Machines
last year stopped operating after landing on its side, and in 2023 a
lander launched by the Japanese company ispace crashed onto the lunar
surface.

Firefly Aerospace, which is headquartered in Cedar Park, Texas, said
Blue Ghost's smooth touchdown makes it the "first commercial company in
history to achieve a fully successful soft-landing on the Moon."

The mission occurred as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, wherein the space agency contracts with private companies to
send scientific instruments and other technology to the lunar surface.
It is also part of NASA's Artemis program, which intends to send
astronauts back to the moon for the first time in decades.

Blue Ghost is carrying 10 NASA experiments on board, including a drill
to measure lunar heat flow, an instrument to collect rock samples and an
X-ray imager to study how Earth's magnetic field is impacted by cosmic
forces such as solar wind. The experiments are expected to operate for
14 days — or roughly one lunar day.

Firefly said the lander would also capture high-definition imagery of
the March 14 total eclipse, when the Earth will pass between the moon
and the sun.

Private lunar lander Blue Ghost sent images back to Earth after touching
down on the moon early Sunday morning.
Private lunar lander Blue Ghost sent images back to Earth after touching
down on the moon early Sunday morning.

AP/NASA/Firefly Aerospace
Shortly after landing on Sunday, Blue Ghost began beaming back images
from the moon, including one of its thrusters illuminated by the glare
of the sun.

The spacecraft launched on Jan. 15 from the Kennedy Space Center in
Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It was one of two lunar landers
on the rocket, alongside another space lander called Resilience that is expected to land on the moon in late May or early June.

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