Watch sunset on the moon as the Blue Ghost mission comes to a close. Here, we see a final sequence as the sun sets below the moon’s surface. The white dot in the distance is Venus, and the bright object that looks like a second sun is Earth with sunlight shining off it. Video via Firefly Aerospace.
Blue Ghost ends its successful mission
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost moon lander has now completed the first successful commercial moon landing mission. As the sun set on Mare Crisium on March 16, 2025, the team wrapped up a mission that lasted for 14 days on the surface plus five hours into the lunar night. With this in mind, the company said:
All 10 NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services instruments successfully operated on the lunar surface and collected their science data during Blue Ghost Mission 1.
Blue Ghost landed on the moon
On March 2, 2025, Firefly Aerospace‘s Blue Ghost mission landed on the moon’s surface. The touchdown took place early Sunday morning at around 2:45 a.m. CST (8:45 UTC). The craft set down on the moon’s near side in the recognizable feature known as Mare Crisium, near an ancient volcano called Mons Latreille.
Video via Firefly Aerospace.
On the moon
We have confirmation #BlueGhost stuck the landing! Firefly just became the first commercial company in history to achieve a fully successful Moon landing. This small step on the Moon represents a giant leap in commercial exploration. Congratulations to the entire Firefly team,…
— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) March 2, 2025
Blue Ghost’s shadow seen on the Moon’s surface! We’ll continue to share images and updates throughout our surface operations. #BGM1 pic.twitter.com/iP7fWOSths
— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) March 2, 2025
Blue Ghost is on the moon.
The lunar horizon, with Earth in view, seen from our lander's top deck:
— Michael Sheetz (@michaelsheetz.bsky.social) March 2, 2025 at 4:52 AM
Blue Ghost images and videos
Look below for a replay of the landing.
In addition, we also have an exclusive preview of the Blue Ghost mission, obtained in an EarthSky livestream last week. It’s an interview with Firefly’s future systems architect Kevin Scholtes.
Below that, you’ll find a couple of beautiful videos showing Blue Ghost in orbit around the moon, with Earth in the distance.
Firefly Aerospace reported that Blue Ghost landed on the moon – in Mare Crisium – on Sunday, March 2, 2025. Watch a replay of the landing in the player above. Video via Firefly Aerospace.
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 lunar lander landed on the moon Sunday morning, at 2:45 CST (8:45 UTC). EarthSky got an exclusive insider look at the mission and the lander. On February 27, Firefly’s future systems architect Kevin Scholtes joined EarthSky’s Dave Adalian to give us a mission overview and landing preview! Watch the replay.
Credit: Firefly Aerospace
— EarthSky (@earthskyscience.bsky.social) February 25, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Blue Ghost captured the beautiful video above during one of its lunar orbits. In particular, note the distant crescent Earth and the bright sun.
And here’s another video of Blue Ghost orbiting the moon. Firefly Aerospace released this one on February 26, 2025. Video via Firefly Aerospace.
Blue Ghost launched to the moon on January 15
At 6:11 UTC (1:11 a.m. EST) on January 15, 2025, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander launched successfully from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Fired into orbit atop a Space X Falcon 9 rocket, the craft headed for the moon, where it landed on March 2, 2025.
Firefly Aerospace is a private company near Austin, Texas, that NASA contracted to take science payloads to the moon. This is, in fact, the first mission to the moon for the Blue Ghost lunar lander, and the company has dubbed the mission Ghost Riders in the Sky. In this case, the lander aimed for Mare Crisium, a dark plain you can see with the unaided eye on the right edge of a rising full moon.
How did Blue Ghost get to the moon?
Overall, the mission needed about 45 days to get to the moon. For the first 25 days, Blue Ghost orbited Earth. Then, it headed toward the moon, which took approximately four days. It then orbited the moon for 16 days. And, during transit, it performed health checks and began some of its science experiments. Then, the lander reached the surface, where it operated for 14 days.
Also, remember that on the moon, it takes 14 Earth days to go from sunrise to sunset. And then, it takes another 14 Earth days from sunset to sunrise. So when night descends on the lander, Firefly expects it to operate for the first five-plus hours of darkness before its solar-powered batteries run out.
Science payloads
NASA had 10 science payloads on board Blue Ghost, altogether. Some of the tasks Blue Ghost had on the lunar surface involved taking soil samples, drilling below the surface and capturing images of the lunar sunset. Additionally, NASA also tested a computer designed to withstand high doses of radiation, measured the solar wind’s interaction with Earth’s magnetosphere and analyzed the pesky lunar dust that adheres to everything, among other activities.
In particular, NASA wants to learn more about the lunar environment before the Artemis astronauts make their first landing on the moon.
That mission, Artemis 3, is currently scheduled for 2027.
Bottom line: Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost mission has come to a successful end with the setting of the sun on the moon, as it enters two weeks of darkness.
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