Before completing his mission, the Blue Ghost probe, developed by Firefly Aerospace, surprised a spectacular sunset, capturing the sunlight gradually extinguishing over the selenary horizon.
Sunset with the earth and Venus on the horizon. Photo: Firefly Aerospace
Firefly Aerospace has published the latest images captured by Lander, offering amazing sunset on the surface of the Moon. The mission, which lasted a complete monthly day (the equivalent of 14 terrestrial days), officially ended on March 16, 2025, after Blue Ghost spent about five hours on the selenary night before giving up extreme temperatures. The probe was not designed to resist the monthly night, reports Gizmodo.
A one-minute video, made up of images captured by the different rooms of the Lander, was made by combining them in a single sequence. In the pictures, the earth and Venus can be seen shining above the surface of the Moon. The NASA team will analyze the images in detail and publish the conclusions obtained.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipa9dordkee
NASA also surprised another angle of the monthly sunset using one of the scalpss 1.1 (stereo rooms for lunar-plume surface studies) transported by Lander. It captured the shadow stretching over the selenary soil, giving a different perspective on the phenomenon.
The longest commercial mission per month so far
The Blue Ghost probe landed on the Moon on March 2, transporting 10 NASA scientific tools, designed to study the monthly surface and collect essential data for future human crew missions. The mission is part of the monthly Payload Services (CLPS) Commercial Initiative, which follows the regular transport of the Moon equipment through private companies.
During the 14 operating days, Blue Ghost carried out scheduled scientific tasks and transmitted over 119 data gigabytes, an event marking the longest commercial mission so far on the monthly surface. This is the first in a series of annual missions planned by Firefly Aerospace.
During his activity, the Lander captured spectacular images, including an impressive video of his landing on the craterized surface of the Moon. Also, on March 14, Blue Ghost surprised a total sun eclipse seen on the Moon, while on Earth there was a total lunar eclipse.
By his mission, called “Ghost Riders to the Sky”, Firefly Aerospace has become the second private company that lands on the Moon and the first to keep the Landa in a vertical position. Unlike Firefly, Intuitive Machines, which managed to land in February 2024, had his Odysseus Landsseus on one side.
Firefly is already preparing for its second monthly mission, having the ambitious objective of making annual landings on the surface of the Moon.
