Blue Ghost lander captures stunning sunset shots on the moon before falling silent

This representation provided by NASA/Firefly Aerospace, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, shows the prima mounting connected the moon, with Earth and Venus successful the distance. (NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)

AP

This representation provided by NASA/Firefly Aerospace, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, shows the prima mounting connected the moon, with Earth and Venus successful the distance. (NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)

AP

This representation provided by NASA/Firefly Aerospace shows Earth captured by Blue Ghost soon aft landing from the lunar surface. (NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)

AP

This representation provided by NASA/Firefly Aerospace shows the prima astir to look from totality down Earth. (NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)

AP

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A backstage lunar lander has captured the archetypal high-definition sunset pictures from the moon.

Firefly Aerospace and NASA released the stunning photos Tuesday, taken earlier the Blue Ghost lander fell soundless implicit the weekend. One changeable included Venus successful the distance.

Firefly’s Blue Ghost landed connected the satellite connected March 2, the archetypal backstage spacecraft to interaction down upright and execute its full mission. It kept taking pictures and collecting subject information 5 hours into the lunar nighttime earlier it died for deficiency of star energy.

NASA's Joel Kearns said Blue Ghost's bid of sunset shots are the archetypal high-resolution images from Earth's neighbor. Scientists volition request to analyse them successful depth, helium noted, earlier making immoderate determination astir the skyline glow captured successful astatine slightest 1 of the photos and whether it was created by levitating dust. That mentation was enactment distant much than a half-century agone by Apollo 17's Gene Cernan, the past astronaut to locomotion connected the moon.

“What we've got is simply a truly beautiful, aesthetic representation showing immoderate truly antithetic features," Kearns said astatine a quality conference.

Blue Ghost carried 10 experiments for NASA nether the abstraction agency's commercialized lunar transportation program. While each objectives were met, officials said, the on-board drill could lone penetrate 3 feet (1 meter) into the satellite versus the 10 feet (3 meters) that had been planned.

Firefly said it volition effort to activate the lunar successful aboriginal April pursuing the two-week, bitter acold lunar night, though engineers are doubtful it volition crank backmost up.

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March 18, 2025|Updated March 18, 2025 3:47 p.m.