Firefly Aerospace’s robotic vehicle became the second privately built spacecraft to make a soft landing on the moon. It could soon be joined by two more private lunar landers.
A robotic spacecraft from an American startup gently set down on a lava plain on the moon’s near side early Sunday morning.
The Blue Ghost lander, built by Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas, touched down at 3:34 a.m. Eastern time.
“You all stuck the landing,” Will Coogan, the Blue Ghost chief engineer, said during a livestream from the flight operations room. “We’re on the moon.”
A few minutes later, Jason Kim, the chief executive of Firefly, proudly declared, “We got some moon dust on our boots.”
Within about half an hour, the spacecraft sent back its first photograph of the moon’s surface.
It was a remarkable success for the company, achieving what many others have not.
Among the countries, companies and organizations that have attempted in the 21st century to set down softly on the moon, only China can claim complete success on the first try. Others, including those from India, Russia, an Israeli nonprofit and a Japanese company, all crashed and carved new craters on the lunar surface.