Blue Ghost moon lander sees Earth as a 'blue marble' from orbit (photo)
Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost moon lander caught haunting images of Earth while preparing to make its way towards lunar orbit.
Blue Ghost launched on the "Ghost Riders in the Sky" mission on Jan. 15 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The lander is currently orbiting Earth, and will continue to do so for about two more weeks before it performs an engine burn that will take it on a four-day journey to the moon. Firefly Aerospace's lander will then perform another burn to insert itself into orbit around the moon, where it will spend 16 days before descending to the lunar surface.
On Friday (Jan. 24), Firefly Aerospace shared photos of Earth taken by the lander as it fired its engines to raise its orbit. "Our GhostRiders captured the beauty of our home planet during another Earth orbit burn. This second engine burn (and first critical burn) adjusted Blue Ghost's apogee (the furthest point from Earth) using just our Spectre RCS thrusters," the company posted to X.
Blue Ghost is flying to the moon as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. CLPS pairs NASA scientific payloads with privately-built moon landers that can deliver them to the lunar surface. The program was created in support of NASA's Artemis program that aims to land astronauts on the moon for the first time in over 50 years.
