A moon lander from Firefly Aerospace was launched this morning carrying a variety of NASA science instruments and technology demonstrations. The Blue Ghost mission was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:11 a.m. ET today, Wednesday January 15.
The aim is for the mission to perform a soft landing on the moon. If successful it will be just the second such landing ever by a private company, following the Intuitive Machines Odysseus landing last year. These two landings are part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which aims to have companies deliver NASA science to the moon ahead of planned human exploration there for the Artemis mission.
“This mission embodies the bold spirit of NASA’s Artemis campaign – a campaign driven by scientific exploration and discovery,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “Each flight we’re a part of is vital step in the larger blueprint to establish a responsible, sustained human presence at the moon, Mars, and beyond. Each scientific instrument and technology demonstration brings us closer to realizing our vision. Congratulations to the NASA, Firefly, and SpaceX teams on this successful launch.”
After the launch, the spacecraft separated from its rocket at 2:17 a.m. ET and established communications with the ground. The team then checked out the spacecraft’s position and health, ensuring everything was working correctly and that data could be transferred.
Now, the Blue Ghost spacecraft will spend around 25 days in orbit around the Earth before heading toward the moon for a four-day journey there and then spending 16 days in lunar orbit. The aim is to attempt a landing on the moon on Sunday, March 2, in an area called the Mare Crisium basin, a 300-mile-wide crater located in the northern part of the moon’s near side, and for the spacecraft to then perform experiments in lunar drilling and sample collection.
“On behalf of Firefly, we want to thank SpaceX for a spot-on deployment in our target orbit,” said Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. “The mission is now in the hands of the unstoppable Firefly team. 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.”
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.