Stunning Eclipse View Captured by Blue Ghost Mission

Earlier this month, Firefly Aerospace launched its Blue Ghost mission with the goal of reaching the moon. The mission has already produced remarkable footage showing the Earth obscuring the sun from space. Currently, the Blue Ghost lander is in a low Earth orbit, fine-tuning its trajectory as it prepares for its journey to the moon over the upcoming weeks. While en route, it’s actively collecting scientific data and testing its communication systems.

Five days into the mission, Firefly announced, “We’ve covered 220,000 miles and transmitted 1.4 GB of data!” Their message emphasized the significant accomplishments of their team, mentioning that, “There’s a long road ahead, but our #GhostRiders are making remarkable progress!”

Initial image from space of Firefly’s Blue Ghost mission 1 lunar lander during its 45-day transit to the Moon, showcasing the X-band antenna and NASA’s LEXI payload. — Initial image from space of Firefly’s Blue Ghost mission 1 lunar lander as it embarks on its 45-day journey to the Moon, featuring the top deck with the X-band antenna and NASA’s Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) payload. Firefly Aerospace

The company also released an initial photograph of the lander in orbit, revealing some of the six NASA payloads onboard, including the X-ray instrument LEXI. This instrument will examine the Earth’s magnetosphere from lunar orbit using X-ray wavelengths.

The mission shared an exciting update—video footage showing the Earth moving across the sun, creating an eclipse:

Blue Ghost Mission 1 – Earth eclipse from Orbit

Additionally, Firefly Aerospace made a significant announcement regarding a signal received from the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), a collaboration with NASA and the Italian Space Agency. This experiment achieved a remarkable feat by connecting with a global satellite system from a distance of 205,674 miles, setting a new record. Firefly noted, “This step toward establishing a navigation solution for the Moon marks another successful milestone for our payload partners aboard Blue Ghost.”

According to NASA, “This achievement indicates that Earth-based GNSS constellations can be utilized for navigation at nearly 90% of the distance to the Moon, marking a groundbreaking Earth-Moon signal distance record. It also highlights the potential of integrating multiple GNSS constellations, like GPS and Galileo, for navigation purposes.”

The Blue Ghost lander will continue its orbit around the Earth for another 25 days before embarking on a four-day journey to the moon, with plans to enter lunar orbit in early March.