A private spacecraft has landed on the Moon, becoming only the second commercial vehicle to reach the surface of the Moon.
Blue Ghost left Earth on January 15th, after being launched by the United States (U.S.) company Firefly Aerospace with the aim of exploring the ‘Sea of Crises‘, a massive crater visible from Earth.
The project is the latest collaboration between the U.S. space agency NASA and private companies.
Intuitive Machines, another company, hopes to land its spacecraft Athena near the Moon’s south pole in the next few days.
Intuitive was the first private company to successfully land on the Moon. Its spacecraft Odysseus reached the Moon on February 22ndlast year. However, the mission was short-lived because the spacecraft landed on the slope of a crater, broke part of its landing gear, and tipped over.
Blue Ghost touched down smoothly after orbiting the Moon for the past two weeks.
Staff at Firefly’s headquarters in Texas cheered and applauded when they were told their landing was successful.
