Lunar lander captures Earth-eclipse image on road trip to the Moon
Firefly's Blue Ghost lander has traveled more than 715,000 miles in space since launching on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida this year. The company is targeting a soft landing on the near side of the Moon in early March.
Lunar lander captures Earth eclipse
Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander captured this view of Earth eclipsing the Moon during the spacecraft's journey to the lunar surface.
The Blue Ghost lunar lander continues to capture beautiful views on its 45-day road trip to the Moon, most recently an Earth eclipse.
Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 15, carrying 10 NASA payloads to the Moon.
After sharing its first views of Earth and the Moon, Blue Ghost most recently captured the video above of the Earth eclipsing the Moon.
The Earth-eclipse seen by Firefly's Blue Ghost lander.
So far, Blue Ghost has traveled more than 715,000 miles in space and sent more than 7 GB of data back to Earth. According to Firefly, of the 10 NASA investigations, several are already underway during spaceflight.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander captured the Moon in the distance and Earth on the horizon from its top deck, showing the LEXI payload and X-band antenna.
According to Firefly Aerospace, Blue Ghost has about a week left in Earth's orbit before completing a trans-lunar injection and heading toward the Moon. After a lunar orbit insertion burn, the spacecraft will spend about 16 days orbiting the Moon before landing on March 2.
If the lander survives its descent to land on the near side of the Moon, near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, Firefly hopes to share many more breathtaking views with the world.
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Firefly plans to capture images from the Moon, including a total eclipse of the Sun from the lunar surface.
They also hope to capture a lunar sunset, recreating what Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan described during his mission. Only four astronauts have witnessed this phenomenon, known as "lunar horizon glow," in which moondust is energized by sunlight and glows even after the Sun is gone.