A US private spacecraft achieved its first-ever uncrewed lunar landing on Sunday, marking the second commercial moon landing.
Firefly Aerospace's lunar lander Blue Ghost touched down near an ancient volcanic vent on Mare Crisium, a large basin in the northeast corner of the moon's Earth-facing side.
"We're on the moon," Mission Control reported, adding the lander was "stable."
The mission is part of a NASA partnership with industry to cut costs and support the Artemis program, which strives to return astronauts to the moon.
"We're going to be putting America first, we're making America proud, we're doing this for the US citizens," said acting NASA director Janet Petro.
We’re baaack!
Blue Ghost has landed, safely delivering 10 NASA scientific investigations and tech demos that will help us learn more about the lunar environment and support future astronauts on the Moon and Mars. pic.twitter.com/guugFdsXY3
Blue Ghost was launched in mid-January from Florida, carrying 10 experiments from NASA to the lunar surface. The space agency paid $101 million (roughly €97.3 million) for the delivery, and $44 million more for the science.
The four-legged lunar lander is roughly the size of a compact car.
The lander is carrying a vacuum that would suck up moon dirt for analysis. There is also a drill on board that can measure temperature at depths of up to 10 feet (3 meters) below the surface.
The demos should run for roughly two weeks before lunar daytime is up and the lander shuts down.
The lander captured stunning footage of Earth and the moon along its journey.
It is due to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse on March 14, when Earth blocks the sun from the moon's horizon. It will then record a lunar sunset on March 16, in an effort to provide insight into how dust levitates above the surface under solar influence.
Who else has successfully moon landed?
It is the second private company to achieve a soft moon landing, following the success of the Intuitive Machines Odysseus lander last year, albeit with a less smooth landing; breaking a leg and tipping over in the process. The Houston-based firm is sending another lander to the bottom of the moon this year, due to land on Thursday.
On the national level, five countries have also managed the landing. They include the then-Soviet Union, the US, China, India and Japan.
