Blue Ghost Mission 1 - Moon Fly By

Blue Ghost's first spectacular flyby of Earth's natural satellite: the spacecraft is expected to touch down in Mare Crisium on the Moon's near side no earlier than 2:45 a.m. CST (08:45 UTC) on Sunday, March 2, 2025. Live coverage, hosted jointly by the private American company Firefly and the NASA space agency, is scheduled to begin at 1:30 a.m. CST (07:30 UTC). Blue Ghost's mission 1 will deliver 10 science and technology instruments to the lunar surface as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Firefly's Blue Ghost 1 mission, called Ghost Riders in the Sky, launched on January 15 and has nearly completed its 45-day transit from Earth to the Moon before landing on March 2. On March 14, Firefly plans to capture high-resolution images of a total eclipse when Earth blocks the sun above the Moon's horizon. Blue Ghost will then capture the moonset on March 16, providing data on how lunar dust levitates due to solar influences and creates a lunar horizon glow first documented by Eugene Cernan on Apollo 17. Blue Ghost is a class of lunar landers designed and built by Firefly Aerospace for the purpose of sending small payloads to the surface of the Moon. The first mission (Blue Ghost M1) was launched on January 15, 2025 aboard a Falcon 9 Block 5. After sunset, Blue Ghost will operate for several hours into the lunar night. In the images, the video of the flyby released by the company on February 26, 2025.