Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost spacecraft has captured a breathtaking image of Earth from a distance of 4,000 miles during its journey to the moon. The mission, scheduled to become the second commercial soft lunar landing, is progressing well and is expected to reach the moon in approximately two weeks.
A week after its launch, the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost mission continues to make impressive strides toward its goal of becoming the second commercial spacecraft to successfully soft-land on the moon. The mission, carrying NASA payloads, has already captured stunning images of a solar eclipse from space and now has provided an equally breathtaking view of our planet Earth from a distance of 4,000 miles.
'Firefly captured the beauty of our home planet during another Earth orbit burn,' Firefly Aerospace wrote in a mission update, sharing the image. 'This second engine burn (and first critical burn) adjusted Blue Ghost’s apogee (the furthest point from Earth) using our Spectre RCS thrusters. With just over two weeks left in Earth orbit before our Trans Lunar Injection, the Firefly team will continue operating our NASA payloads onboard and capturing science data along the way.'The spacecraft will now spend approximately two more weeks orbiting Earth, gradually fine-tuning its trajectory before performing a maneuver called a trans lunar injection. This maneuver will propel Blue Ghost on a four-day journey toward the moon, following a path known as lunar transit. Upon reaching the moon, it will need to enter lunar orbit through a maneuver called a lunar orbit injection. After that, it will spend 16 days orbiting the moon before attempting a landing on its surface. Despite the Apollo missions successfully landing humans on the moon over 50 years ago, lunar landings remain a complex undertaking. The moon's surface is littered with rocks and boulders, and features slopes and craters that can make landing challenging. The first commercial lunar landing, executed by Intuitive Machines last year, encountered difficulties as the lander descended at an angle, ending up partially on its side after a foot became caught on the surface. While this lander was still able to collect scientific data, its angled position limited its solar power collection, resulting in a relatively short mission duration on the lunar surface. Firefly Aerospace is aiming for a smoother landing operation and will utilize technology similar to that employed for landing rovers on Mars, known as terrain relative navigation. This technology involves onboard computers analyzing images of the lunar terrain to select a suitable landing site
Spacecraft Blue Ghost Firefly Aerospace NASA Lunar Mission Earth Observation Trans Lunar Injection Lunar Orbit Injection Terrain Relative Navigation
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