Private Lunar Lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA landed on Sunday of the moon, which is a success for the latest companies that want to start operating in heavenly neighbors of the Earth before astronauts missions.
Blue Ghost Lander from Firefly Aerospace descended from the moon orbit on the autopilot, seeking to the slopes of the ancient volcanic dome in the river basin at the north -eastern end of the moon of the close side.
Confirmation of a successful use came from the company's mission control outside Austin in Texas, after the action about 360,000 kilometers.
“You all got stuck in landing. We are on the moon, “said Will Cogan Firefly, chief engineer Landera.
The authorized and stable landing makes Firefly – a startup founded ten years ago – the first private outfit that placed the spacecraft on the moon without breakdown or fall. Even the countries hesitated, with only five successes: Russia, the USA, China, India and Japan.
Half an hour after the landing of Blue Ghost began sending photos from the surface, the first selfies slightly covered by the sun. The second shot covered a home planet, a blue dot shining in black space.
Two other companies are hot with Blue Ghost heels, and the next one expected to join the moon this week.
Blue Ghost – named after the rare American genre of skylights – had its size and shape. According to the company, the four -legged Lander squat is two meters high and 3.5 meters, providing additional stability.
Sirefly Aerospace with headquarters in the US plans to conduct several lunar experiments for NASA, while ISPACE from Tokyo is a separate mission for Japan.
Lander, began in mid -January from Florida, conducted 10 experiments to the moon on NASA. The Space Agency paid USD 101 million (USD 146 million) for the supply of plus USD 44 million (USD 64 million CDN) for recording and technology. This is the third mission as part of the commercial program for the delivery of the NASA moon, which aims to ignite the moon of competitive private private companies during the search for astronauts will appear later in this decade.
Exact position unknown
Ray Allensworth from Firefly said Lander had skipped threats, including boulders to land safely. Allensworth said that the team continued to analyze the data to determine the exact position of Lander, but all indications suggest that they landed in the 100-meter target zone in the crusade of mare.
Demos should get two weeks of duration before the lunar ends during the day and Lander turns off.
He wore a vacuum to drain the moon's dirt for analysis and a drill for measuring the temperature as deep as three meters below the surface. Also on board: a device for eliminating the moon lunar dust-dust-plague for the old-button NASA Apollo Moonwalkers, who hugged him in space and equipment.
On the way to the moon, Blue Ghost beaming the excellent photos of the home planet. Lander was still stunning around the moon, with detailed shots of the gray gray surface of the moon. At the same time, the on -board receiver followed and purchased signals from American GPS and European constellations Galileo, which is encouraging navigation for future explorers.
Landing has prepared a scene for fresh sympathy for visitors that conquer in the lunar industry.
Another landowner-wysoki and a thin four-lane built and operated by intuitive machines from Houston-land on Thursday on the moon. It is aimed at the bottom of the moon, only 160 kilometers from the south pole. This is closer to the pole than the company last year with the first lander, who broke his leg and tilted.
Despite the fall, the intuitive Lander machines rejected the US for the first time since the Astronauts NASA closed the Apollo program in 1972.
The third landing machine from the Japanese company ispace is still three months after landing. This He shared a rocket from Blue Ghost with Cape Canaveral on January 15Choose a longer, more windy route. Like intuitive machines, ISPACE is also trying to land on the moon for the second time. His first landowner It crashed in 2023.
The moon is littered with a wreck not only with Ispace, but dozens of other unsuccessful attempts over decades.
NASA wants to keep up with two private lunar landers a year, realizing that some missions will fail, he said that the best science officer of the Nicky Fox space agency.
“It really opens a completely new way for us to get more science into space and moon,” said Fox.
Unlike the successful NASA Apollo Moon landings, which had billions of dollars and Ace astronauts behind them, private companies operate with a limited budget with a robotic craftsmanship, which must land alone, Jason Kim.
Kim said that everything went like a clock.
“We have some lunar dust on our shoes,” said Kim.