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A " ghostly " spacecraft has shared a gem trove of holiday photos from its recent trip into ambit , including a sensational selfie with Earth eclipsing the moon in the background signal .
This " ghost " is n’t a phantom haunting space ; it ’s the Blue Ghost lunar lander , a shiny new spacecraft on its way to the moon , tightly packed with science musical instrument and ready to learn about our celestial neighbour .
The Blue Ghost lunar lander photographing itself, with Earth in the background. The top of the spacecraft’s thrusters and some of its science payload are shown wrapped in orange and gold insulation.
The delegation , Blue Ghost Mission 1 — also known as Ghost Riders in the Sky — is spearheaded bythe private company Firefly Aerospaceas a part ofNASA ’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program . The Blue Ghost lander contains 10 science payloads designed to collect lunar sample distribution , help oneself future spacecraft military position themselves , measure electric andmagnetic orbit , and a spate more . The mission ’s goal is to further our understanding of the Sun Myung Moon while evidence new applied science .
Blue Ghost establish from NASA ’s Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 15 . Over the following few weeks , the lunar lander circulate Earth a few times and then fired up its thrusters to set it on a four - Clarence Day journeying to the Sun Myung Moon . Along the way , Blue Ghost snap several photos to quiz its camera , include a couple " selfies " with our family planet . The moon snuck into a couple of the epitome as well , showing up as a small , white loony toons linger over the swirl clouds and deep - blue oceans that make Earthsuch a special position in the universe of discourse .
The lander even manage to charm footage of Earth and the lunar month engaged in their common cosmic dancing , but from a perspective we rarely see . From the space vehicle ’s view , Earth slipped in front of the moon , eclipse it solely . As Blue Ghost spun around to the nightside of our planet , Earth transform from a bright ball to a thin crescent , following the moon into shadow .
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander snapped a photo of Earth with the moon as a distant speck in the background. The spacecraft’s shiny solar panels reflect Earth in the foreground.
On Feb. 13 , Blue Ghostreached lunar orbit , where it will stay on until its planned lunar landing place attempt on March 2 — potentially becoming only the 2nd private lunar lander ever to touch down on the synodic month ’s surface . ( Houston - based Intuitive Machines’Odysseus lander was the first to do so when itreached the moon in February 2024 . )
Blue Ghost ’s landing site , Mare Crisium , is a giant encroachment crater that was partially fill up in with a flood of basaltic lava approximately 3 billion years ago . The volcanic crater isvisible from Earthas a sour dress circle in the northeast division of the moon if viewed from the Northern Hemisphere . ( It appears in the southwest division from Earth ’s Southern Hemisphere . ) you may see the dark spot with the naked heart , but it look even better through a pair ofstargazing binocularsor a goodbackyard telescope .
While spin around the moon , the lander also took the opportunity to film the surface of the lunar far side — the part of the moonwe never see from Earth . Blue Ghost ’s low height will permit the ballistic capsule to capture the details of each volcanic crater and show hills and valleys silhouetted against the black sky .
A short video taken by Blue Ghost shows Earth eclipsing the moon as the spacecraft travels deeper into space.
While fly about 75 mil ( 120 kilometers ) above , Blue Ghost took a video showing the far side of the moon ’s cratered , chunky surface .
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