The latest private lunar lander is a little closer to its destination.
The engine burn, which started at 3:09 a.m. Our#GhostRiderscompleted another lunar orbit maneuver with a 3 minute, 18 second burn early this morning.
This maneuver moved the lander from a high elliptical orbit to a much lower elliptical orbit around the Moon.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost entered a lower elliptical orbit around the Moon.© Firefly Aerospace
The 45-day itinerary between planetary takeoff and lunar touchdown also allowed Blue Ghosts handlers to calibrate the onboard instruments.
The basin was formed by an ancient asteroid collision, and was once filled with basaltic lava.
During that time, its cameras caught somespectacular shots of our planet, even taking a selfie or two.
Blue Ghost’s vacation selfies are better than your vacation selfies. © Firefly Aerospace
In April 2023, Japanese company ispaces Hakuto-R M1 lander crashed whileattempting its touchdown.
Should Blue Ghost land safely, itll have some new company in short order.
That mission will include a robot designed tohop across the surfaceto explore a crater thats in a permanent shadow.
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