17.02.2025
Firefly Aerospace released this image Feb. 14 of its Blue Ghost 1 spacecraft in orbit around the moon. Credit: Firefly Aerospace
WASHINGTON — One commercial lunar lander has entered orbit around the moon while another, launched at the same time, has performed a lunar flyby to set up a later return.
Firefly Aerospace confirmed Feb. 13 that its Blue Ghost 1 lander entered orbit around the moon, performing a 4-minutes, 15-second burn of its reaction control system thrusters starting at 8:51 p.m. Eastern.
The company did not disclose specifics about the orbit but amateur trackers, monitoring its radio signals, estimated that the spacecraft is in an orbit between 150 and 5,673 kilometers above the moon. Firefly said the lander will perform additional maneuvers to move into a circular orbit to prepare for its landing attempt.
That landing is scheduled for 3:45 a.m. Eastern March 2, the company and NASA announced Feb. 14. Blue Ghost 1 is carrying 10 NASA payloads through the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program intended to operate at the landing site near Mare Crisium through the end of the lunar day and several hours after sunset.
Blue Ghost 1 launched Jan. 15 on a Falcon 9, sharing the launch with the Resilience lunar lander from Japanese company ispace. Resilience, the company’s second lander mission, performed a lunar flyby Feb. 14, passing about 8,400 kilometers from the lunar surface at 5:43 p.m. Eastern.
Resilience is following a low-energy trajectory to the moon, one that will take is as far as 1.1 million kilometers from Earth before returning in early May to perform a lunar orbit insertion burn. That will be followed by a landing attempt in the Mare Frigoris region of the moon, although ispace has not disclosed a planned landing date.
“I feel very confident about the Resilience lander, which has steadily achieved milestones and is on track for success, and our employees who have made meticulous preparations for this impressive flyby of the moon,” Takeshi Hakamada, founder and chief executive of ispace, said in a statement.
Both Firefly Aerospace and ispace have outlined milestones and success criteria for their lander mission. For Firefly, achieving lunar orbital insertion was the 10th of 17 milestones from launch to operations of the lander after sunset on the lunar surface. The lunar flyby by Resilience was the fifth of 10 milestones for ispace, from pre-launch preparations to establishing a “steady system state” after landing.
Blue Ghost 1 could end up operating on the lunar surface at the same time as another commercial lander. Intuitive Machines is preparing for a Feb. 26 launch of its IM-2 lunar lander mission at the beginning of a window that runs for four days. IM-2, like the company’s IM-1 lander mission a year ago, is taking more direct route to the moon. Steve Altemus, chief executive of Intuitive Machines, told CNBC Feb. 7 that a launch any day in the window would set up a landing in the Mons Mouton region near the south pole the moon on March 6.
Quelle: SN
----
Update: 21.02.2025
.
Blue Ghost moon lander lowers its orbit to fly closer to the lunar surface
For this probe, the moon is way (way) closer now.
There's a lot less sky and a lot more moon in view for Firefly Aerospace's "Ghost Riders in the Sky" mission.
Firefly's lunar lander, named Blue Ghost, entered orbit around the moon last week, ending a four-day transit from Earth and starting to gear up for a lunar touchdown. In the lead-up to that landing attempt, which should take place a little less than two weeks from now, Blue Ghost recently completed a three-minute, 18-second engine burn to lower its orbit around the moon. The maneuver brought the lander to an altitude of 75 miles (120 kilometers) above the lunar surface, where it will remain until beginning its descent.
In a post on X, which included a video of the probe's new close-up view of the lunar surface, Firefly suggested intermittent communications blackouts with Blue Ghost would occur as the lander circles around the far side of the moon. While the lander is still on the near side, Firefly's team is continuing to receive data and finalize the probe's next engine burns and landing patterns. "That will get Blue Ghost even closer to the lunar surface and keep us right on track for landing on March 2," the post says.
(Image credit: Firefly Aerospace)
Blue Ghost launched last month on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Ghost Riders in the Sky is one of the space agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions, which contracts private companies to fly NASA science experiments and equipment to the moon. Blue Ghost is carrying 10 research and technology demonstrations built to study the lunar environment as NASA ramps up its efforts to return astronauts to the moon through the Artemis program.
Blue Ghost launched on the same rocket that carried another lunar lander to orbit as well: Japanese company ispace's moon lander "Resilience." Resilience is the second moon lander from ispace; its first was unsuccessful. Resilience is carrying the micro-rover Tenacious, and is also hoping for a soft touchdown on the surface of the moon, albeit along a much different route than the one its Blue Ghost launch companion will take.
Resilience's orbit and path toward landing use a measurable amount less energy than Blue Ghost's do, but at the trade-off of time. The probe still has about 3.5 months to go before making its landing attempt. Blue Ghost, on other hand, will have wrapped up its mission well before then.
If everything goes according to plan, Blue Ghost will be the second private mission to ever land on the moon. Once on the lunar surface, the probe will have a full lunar day (about two weeks) before the sun sets and it loses power. During that time, though, the 10 NASA payloads will be busy at work collecting samples, testing components and making discoveries to help researchers better design future missions to the moon and beyond.
Quelle: SC
----
Update: 25.02.2025
.
Blue Ghost Mission Nears Moon Touchdown and GNSS Milestone
Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 is set to land on the Moon in less than a week with touchdown expected on Sunday March 2 after its launch on Jan 15. In preparation for descent, the spacecraft will execute its final lunar orbit maneuver on Monday, Feb 24, inserting it into a near-circular low orbit that brings it closer to the lunar surface. Approximately one hour before landing, a Descent Orbit Insertion burn will commence, initiating its guided approach toward its designated site at Mare Crisium on the Moon's near side.
Live coverage of the landing will be jointly presented by NASA and Firefly on NASA+ beginning at 2:30 a.m. EST, roughly 75 minutes before touchdown. The event will also be streamed live on Firefly's YouTube channel along with timely blog updates and social media posts to mark each descent milestone.
All ten NASA instruments onboard are in excellent condition and ready for lunar operations. During transit, the active payloads collected significant data. The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) successfully tracked Global Navigation Satellite System signals in lunar orbit for the first time, achieving a record at 246,000 miles. This breakthrough suggests that combined GNSS constellations such as GPS and Galileo can be used for navigation around and on the Moon.
After landing, LuGRE will operate for 14 days and attempt to set another record with the first reception of GNSS signals on the lunar surface. Meanwhile, the Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) activated shortly after launch on Jan 15 and has logged over 50 hours of daily checkouts and commissioning in preparation for capturing images from the lunar surface.
Quelle: SD