American spacecraft “Blue Ghost” successfully lands on the moon and sends back multiple photos.

On Sunday, March 2nd, the American private aerospace company Firefly Aerospace’s lunar lander Blue Ghost successfully landed on the moon carrying NASA’s drill, vacuum machine, and other experimental equipment.

As part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, Firefly Aerospace stated that the Blue Ghost 1 mission was named Ghost Riders in the Sky. The lunar landing on Sunday marked Firefly Aerospace as the first commercial company in history to achieve a successful soft landing on the moon, laying the groundwork for future lunar space explorations.

According to Firefly Aerospace, at 2:34 am Central Standard Time (CST) on Sunday, the Blue Ghost landed precisely in a basin named Mare Crisium in the northeast region of the moon, carrying 10 scientific instruments from NASA.

The Blue Ghost lander has four “legs” and is about the size of a compact car. As the lunar lander descended onto the moon’s surface at a speed of two miles per hour, the mission control room at Firefly’s headquarters in Austin, Texas, was filled with tension.

“We have successfully landed. We are on the moon,” announced Will Coogan, the chief engineer of Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, triggering cheers in the mission control room.

Approximately half an hour after landing, the Blue Ghost sent back its first image of the moon. Subsequently, it captured more incredible images of the lunar surface.

As a startup company, Firefly’s successful vertical and stable landing of the Blue Ghost makes it the first private organization to send a spacecraft to the moon without any crash or fall incidents.

This lunar mission is part of NASA’s Moon Commercial Delivery Services program, aimed at reducing costs through collaboration with private enterprises to support the Artemis program for astronauts to return to the moon.

“We will put America first, we will make America proud, and we do all of this for the American citizens,” said Janet Petro, Acting Administrator of NASA.