NASA’s Blue Ghost lunar lander has arrived at the moon and is now orbiting Earth’s nearest neighbor as it prepares to make its landing next month. And it’s capturing some amazing photos on its journey.
“After all the testing conducted and mission simulations completed, we’re now fully focused on execution as we look to complete our on-orbit operations, softly touch down on the lunar surface, and pave the way for humanity’s return to the Moon,” Jason Kim, CEO of Blue Ghost builder Firefly Aerospace, said in a recent statement.
The Blue Ghost lander separates from its launch vehicle in Earth orbit on Jan. 15.
The mission, named Ghost Riders in the Sky, launched on Jan. 15 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Week 1: Calibrations and eclipses
Blue Ghost takes a selfie with quite literally everyone on Earth at once.
The cameras on the lander also captured another eclipse. This time it was the Earth passing in front of the moon. It’s not a long video, but we’re fairly used to seeing the Earth block the sun from the moon and not the Earth blocking the moon from the sun.
Week 4: Road trip
With preparations completed, it was time for Blue Ghost to eject itself from Earth’s orbit and head to the moon. The lander took another selfie, this time with the Earth and the moon together just before it left. Per Firefly Aerospace, Blue Ghost performed a successful Trans Lunar Injection burn to escape Earth’s orbit and officially began making its way to the moon.
Once the trip began, the lander ran dozens of health checks to ensure all the payloads were functional and made a few trajectory correction maneuvers to ensure that it remained on course.
Watch this: Watch SpaceX Catch the Starship Booster for the Second Time
09:53
