Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander has landed on the moon

After entering lunar orbit on February 13th, when it executed a 4-minute, 15-second Lunar Orbit Insertion burn, using its main engine and RCS thrusters—built using 3D printed parts provided by Castheon—Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander has landed on the satellite’s surface. It is the first commercial spacecraft to achieve this milestone.

Last week the Firefly team nailed the most challenging burn to date. Starting at 7:51 p.m. CST on February 13, the team completed a 4-minute, 15 second Lunar Orbit Insertion burn with Blue Ghost’s RCS thrusters and main engine to enter an elliptical orbit around the Moon.

From liftoff to landing, Firefly provided regular mission updates all along the way to the Moon.

Since then, Blue Ghost has captured its first close-up images of the lunar surface and is now preparing for the next critical phase: circularizing its orbit for a precise descent. Over the next 11 days, these thrusters will continue making crucial course adjustments, demonstrating the power of additive manufacturing in space exploration.

On February 18th, the Firefly team completed another lunar orbit maneuver with a 3-minute, 18-second burn at 3:09 am (UT). This maneuver moved the lander from a high elliptical orbit to a much lower elliptical orbit around the Moon. Shortly after the burn, Blue Ghost captured incredible footage of the Moon’s far side, about 120 km above the surface.

In this orbit, the team experienced planned rolling comms blackouts as Blue Ghost went around the far side of the Moon. When on the near side, the team continues to downlink data and finalize the plan for our next maneuver to get Blue Ghost closer to the lunar surface, on track for landing on March 2.

During its Lunar Orbit Insertion burn, Blue Ghost captured our first close-up shots of the Moon. Blue Ghost will spend 16 days in lunar orbit and perform additional maneuvers to take the lander from an elliptical orbit to a circular orbit around the Moon.