'We're on the moon!' Private Blue Ghost moon lander aces historic lunar landing for NASA

Space.com ^ | March 2, 2025 | Mike Wall

[Ezekiel]

Blue Ghost just became the second private spacecraft ever to soft-land on the moon.

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost moon lander just etched its name into the history books.

Blue Ghost aced its touchdown try early this morning (March 2), becoming just the second private spacecraft ever to soft-land on the moon. The lander hauled 10 science experiments to the lunar surface for NASA, which was understandably happy with today's result.

[telescope115]

There are 10 NASA experiments on that lander. Should be an interesting 14 day mission. Maybe it’ll last longer than that….

I was up till 3AM watching the whole thing. The only technical glitches were in their broadcast- the audio kept cutting out at times.

[cuz1961]

Other than providing our money, how exactly is this a NASA success?

\/

progs steal any and every thing not nailed down

including credit for others success.

its what they do
cuz its who they are

[Ezekiel]

Groupies, latched on for the association no matter how irrelevant.

[stockpirate]

I mean a human heading to Mars

[SunkenCiv]

Firefly’s view from the lunar surface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxWMPO228QE

https://www.youtube.com/@FireflySpace/videos

[Ezekiel]

“I mean a human heading to Mars”

That’s why no one could make this stuff up. It was truly a “free will” offering toward the grander narrative. 😇

Ingenuity

From Latin ingenuitās.

Derived terms
Yankee ingenuity

ingenuitās f (genitive ingenuitātis); third declension

(originally) The condition of being free-born or noble
noble-mindedness, ingenuousness

[Ezekiel]

Interesting that almost six hours on, even as the tracker had been updating every few minutes this morning...

The info still shows the last location as the exact time of this thread’s timestamp. (I didn’t do that on purpose, and how would I even know in real time that the tracker would freeze on the same time.)

SS UNITED STATES
Mar 2, 2025
6:20:00 AM
Track Name: Track Summary
Speed: 6.27 mph
Course: NW
Elevation: 40.98 ft.
Batt: Low
Lat: 28.199436
Lon: -86.477401

So close, yet nothing in the news about her impending arrival.

In any case, that tracker is about to make one giant leap for mankind (UNITED STATES).

[GingisK]

Sounds like we’ll get to see some cool imagery soon.

It will look just the imagery sent back in the early 1960s, only better resolution. It will not be as good as the photos made by the astronauts in 1969.

[GingisK]

It must be around 6000 mph

Not much higher than muzzle velocity.

[Candor7]

The bullets are sealed from vacuum and have their own combustible supply within the cartridge propellant itself, unlike black powder.

There are other problems , they are discussed here:

https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/45731/20230831/gun-work-vacuum-space-scientists-weigh-possibility.htm

[Candor7]

I must be mistaken then, that most ammo we use is under 4000 mph with most of it falling between 2000 mph and 3000 mph.

I am getting old and out of touch.

[Hot Tabasco]

[Ezekiel]

Thanks!

Nice shadow image.

Already on wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ghost_Mission_1

I really like the Firefly name/logo concept.

[Ezekiel]

Now that my memory's been reengaged...it's worth posting the song and lore background:

Overview

The song tells a folk tale of a cowboy who has a vision of red-eyed, steel-hooved cattle thundering across the sky, being chased by the spirits of damned cowboys. One warns him that if he does not change his ways, he will be doomed to join them, forever "trying to catch the Devil's herd across these endless skies". The story has been linked with old European myths of the Wild Hunt and the Dutch/Flemish legend of the Buckriders, in which a supernatural group of hunters passes the narrator in wild pursuit.[4]

Stan Jones stated that he had been told the story when he was 12 years old by an old Native American who resided north-east of the Douglas, Arizona, border town, a few miles behind D Hill, north of Agua Prieta, Sonora. The Native Americans, possibly Apache, who lived within Cochise County, believed that when souls vacate their physical bodies, they reside as spirits in the sky, resembling ghost riders.

He related this story to Wayne Hester, a boyhood friend (later owner of the Douglas Cable Company). As both boys were looking at the clouds, Stan shared what the old Native American had told him, looking in amazement as the cloudy shapes were identified as the "ghost riders" that years later, would be transposed into lyrics.[2] The melody is based on the Civil War-era popular song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home".[5][6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(Ghost)_Riders_in_the_Sky:_A_Cowboy_Legend

[Svartalfiar]

Without an atmosphere, terminal velocity is the speed of light.

[Candor7]

Thats very, very interesting.

[SunkenCiv]

One of our Apollo moonwalkers referred to the lunar surface as “magnificent desolation”. It fits. :^) :^o

Apollo 8, Bill Anders’ “Earthrise” shot. Ironically, he never walked on the Moon. :^) In face, no one on Apollo 8 made it to the lunar surface, and only Lovell ever flew in space again.

https://search.brave.com/search?q=bill+anders+shot+of+the+earth&summary=1

[telescope115]

Sounds like the inspiration for Ghostrider with Nicholas Cage….

[dfwgator]

[markman46]

nasa experiments are on the lander