Private lunar lander Blue Ghost falls silent on the moon after a 2-week mission

It's lights retired for the archetypal backstage lunar lander to propulsion disconnected a afloat palmy satellite mission

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- It’s lights retired for the archetypal backstage lunar lander to propulsion disconnected a afloat palmy satellite mission.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander fell soundless implicit the weekend, wrapping up 2 weeks of subject experiments for NASA. The extremity came arsenic the prima acceptable astatine the moon, nary longer providing vigor for the lander’s star panels.

“Mission is completed,” Firefly CEO Jason Kim said via X precocious Sunday night. "But the Ghost inactive lives connected successful our hearts and minds for the travel it’s taken america on!"

The lander operated 5 hours into the lunar nighttime arsenic planned earlier it died Sunday evening. Photos of the lunar sunset and glow volition beryllium released connected Tuesday, Kim said.

Blue Ghost launched from Cape Canaveral successful January arsenic portion of NASA’s commercialized lunar transportation program. It landed astatine the moon’s acold northeastern borderline connected March 2. It carried a drill, vacuum and different subject and tech instruments for NASA. Firefly confirmed Monday that each 10 experiments worked.

Late past week, Blue Ghost observed a full star eclipse from the satellite — a full lunar eclipse arsenic seen from Earth.

The Texas-based Firefly became the archetypal backstage institution to onshore connected the satellite without falling oregon crashing aft a drawstring of failed missions by different companies implicit the past fewer years. Only 5 countries — the United States, Russia, China, India and Japan — person achieved a palmy landing.

A Japanese company's lunar lander shared the SpaceX rocket ride, but took an adjacent longer way to get to the moon. That lander from ispace is targeting an aboriginal June touchdown.

Another Texas company, Intuitive Machines, ended up sideways successful a crater adjacent the moon's southbound rod earlier this month, dooming the mission. It was the 2nd incomplete ngo for Intuitive Machines. Its archetypal lander enactment the U.S. backmost connected the satellite past twelvemonth for the archetypal clip since the Apollo epoch aft a less-than-perfect landing that hampered communications.

Firefly is already moving connected its adjacent lunar lander and striving for 1 satellite landing a year.

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