A private spacecraft from the United States, heading to the Moon, has captured impressive views of Earth a week after its launch.
While still orbiting Earth, the Firefly Aerospace lunar module activated its thrusters on Thursday to head towards the Moon, where it will arrive in over a month. Dubbed Blue Ghost, the spacecraft transmitted photos and videos of our planet. The Texas-based company released the images of the Earth’s view on Friday.
Space Projects and Collaborations
Blue Ghost is one of the two lunar modules launched from Florida by SpaceX on January 15. It is scheduled to land on March 2. The other module is sponsored by the Japanese company ispace and takes an even longer route, which will lead it to land at the end of May or in June.
This is Firefly’s first trip to the Moon and the second for ispace, whose first module crashed on the natural satellite in 2023. The latest ispace module, a company based in Tokyo, named Resilience, is still orbiting Earth and performing all maneuvers to approach the Moon.
Objective of Firefly Aerospace’s Lunar Mission
The goal of this mission is to bring scientific experiments to the lunar surface, consolidating NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the Moon in this decade.
Among the scientific payloads transported, the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) stands out, developed in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency. This device has managed to capture navigation signals from a record distance of 330,996 kilometers, marking a significant advance in space navigation technology.
The mission includes six NASA payloads, designed to study everything from radiation to advanced computer systems. Among them, LuGRE stands out, which has demonstrated the ability to acquire GPS and Galileo signals from unprecedented distances. This breakthrough could transform navigation in future missions.
Furthermore, the module has captured impressive images, such as an Earth eclipse seen from space, highlighting the scientific and visual importance of this mission.
Cover photo by Firefly Aerospace
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