Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost spacecraft has captured a superb picture of Earth because it makes its manner towards the moon.
Firefly shared the picture on X, noting that it reveals Australia and the encircling area.
G’day to our pals down below! To the delight of two Aussie Fireflies working in mission management, our Blue Ghost lunar lander snagged one other postcard-worthy shot, this time of Australia! #BGM1 pic.twitter.com/mmUDZjMbdH
— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) February 7, 2025
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The picture was taken by an onboard digital camera quickly after Blue Ghost left Earth orbit en path to our nearest neighbor.
“Blue Ghost has merged onto the freeway to the moon!” the Texas-based crew stated in one other publish shared on Sunday. “After a profitable Trans Lunar Injection burn, our lander has left Earth’s orbit and begun its 4-day transit to the moon’s orbit. We’ll then spend roughly 16 days in lunar orbit earlier than we start Blue Ghost’s descent. This offers us loads of time to calibrate our navigation system and proceed payload science operations for NASA.”
Firefly launched Blue Ghost on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Area Heart in Florida on January 15.
When Blue Ghost reaches the moon, it can keep in a lunar orbit for 16 days earlier than touchdown on the floor on March 2. The mission is scheduled to final a complete of about 60 days and can embody 14 days of operations on the moon’s floor.
Measuring about 2 meters in top and three.5 meters throughout, the Blue Ghost lander will deploy 10 scientific investigations and know-how demonstrations geared towards supporting future human exploration of the moon as a part of the Artemis program.
It’ll contact down near a volcanic characteristic referred to as Mons Latreille inside Mare Crisium, a 500-kilometer-wide basin on the moon’s close to aspect.
The mission has various goals, together with finding out lunar regolith, testing new applied sciences for future missions, and conducting varied scientific experiments, together with observing Earth’s magnetic subject from the moon.
Firefly says that one other mission objective is to encourage the subsequent technology of scientists and engineers. “A lot of our Fireflies began dreaming of area at a younger age crammed with a way of surprise as they appeared to the celebrities and used their creativity in designing automobiles from constructing blocks. Quick ahead to at present and this crew of dreamers are actually working our Blue Ghost lander on its journey to the moon.”
Whereas in Earth orbit earlier this month, the spacecraft additionally captured this beautiful picture of our planet.
