Firefly’s lunar landing captures Earth’s eclipse haunted by space

Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander began its journey to the Moon a little over a week ago, and the mission has already sent back stellar snapshots from space. In addition to checking off a list of critical milestones, Blue Ghost also captured a classic photo of Earth and captured a brief moment of darkness as Earth eclipsed the Sun.

Blue Ghost launched on Wednesday, January 15, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocketguided from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the Moon. The mission, called “Ghost Riders in the Sky”, will spend 45 days traveling through space before attempting a soft touch on the lunar surface.

Shortly after liftoff, Blue Ghost took its first image from space. The image shows the upper deck of the lander, with the X-band antenna and NASA’s LEXI payload visible under a bright flare from sunlight.

Six of Blue Ghost’s payloads are already sending initial data back to Earth, while one payload, LuGRE, has begun its science operations, according to a Firefly Aerospace declaration “Developed by the Italian Space Agency, LuGRE tracks signals from GPS and Galileo satellites during our transit from Earth to the Moon to test signal acquisition and use en route,” the company wrote .

On January 18, the Firefly team performed Blue Ghost’s first engine burn, firing the landing thrusters and main engines into space for the first time. The engine fire brought the spacecraft closer to Earth in preparation for its upcoming maneuvers.

While orbiting Earth, Blue Ghost captured a stunning eclipse from space. But rather than seeing the Moon get stuck between us and the Sun, the lander saw the Earth briefly block the Sun’s light.

Blue Ghost is set to orbit Earth for 25 days before performing an engine burn to set it on a trajectory toward the Moon. Blue Ghost will spend four days en route to the Moon, and another 16 in orbit around the Earth’s satellite before attempting to land on its dusty surface.

The spacecraft captured incredibly impressive views of our planet as it performed a second engine burn. The lander has about two weeks in Earth’s orbit, and will take full advantage of that time

Once it reaches the Moon, Blue Ghost attacks Mare Crisium, the site of an ancient asteroid impact site once filled with basaltic lava. The basalts in Mare Crisium are between 2.5 and 3.3 billion years old, according to NASA. The lander is packed with 10 scientific instruments to study the lunar surface and collect data to support future human missions to the Moon as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

The Moon is set to be a busy place, with more of these commercial trips planned this year, including ispace’s Resilience lander, which launched to the Moon alongside Blue Ghost, but is set to reach the lunar surface in few months