Firefly Gets First Glimpse of Moon, NASA Instrument Checkouts Continue

An image from the top deck of Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander in the darkness of space with the lit Moon in the distance.
An image taken from the top deck of Firefly Aerospace’s lunar lander of the Moon in the distance. Credit: Firefly Aerospace

 

NASA’s science and technology instruments aboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 are a step closer to the Moon. After almost two weeks in Earth orbit, Firefly announced Thursday that Blue Ghost successfully completed its second engine burn, placing the lander in the correct position to leave Earth’s orbit and continue its journey to the Moon. At the same time, the spacecraft got its first glimpse of the Moon from Earth’s orbit.   

Routine assessments while Blue Ghost is in transit show that all NASA payloads continue to be healthy. Firefly and NASA’s payload teams will continue to perform payload health checkouts and operations before reaching the Moon, including calibrating NASA’s Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI), continued transit operations of the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), and analysis of radiation data collected from the Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC) technology demonstration. 

NASA’s Artemis blog will continue to provide updates on this lunar delivery. Additional mission updates can also be found on Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 page. 

Blue Ghost Conducts First Burn, Science Operations, Captures Eclipse

Firefly’s Blue Ghost continues its journey to the Moon carrying 10 NASA science and technology instruments. Four days into the mission, the lunar lander completed its first main engine burn. This milestone is the first of several maneuvers that will position the lander in a trajectory towards the Moon. After 25 days orbiting Earth, Blue Ghost will continue its four-day journey to lunar orbit and orbit the Moon for 16 days before it begins descent operations to the lunar surface as part of NASA’s Artemis campaign.  

Jointly developed by NASA and the Italian Space Agency, the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) technology demonstration acquired Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals, and calculated a navigation fix at nearly 52 Earth radii: more than 205,674 miles (331,000 kilometers) from Earth’s surface. This achievement suggests that Earth-based GNSS constellations can be used for navigation at nearly 90% of the distance to the Moon, an Earth-Moon signal distance record. It also demonstrates the power of using multiple GNSS constellations together, such as GPS and Galileo, to perform navigation. Throughout its journey, LuGRE will continue expanding our knowledge of Earth-based navigation systems in space as it acquires and tracks signals on its way to the Moon, during lunar orbit, and for up to two weeks on the lunar surface. 

During this Earth transit phase, the Firefly mission team has continued to ensure the spacecraft remains healthy. The most recent visuals from space include footage of Earth eclipsing the Sun. 

As the 45day transit to the Moon continues, follow NASA’s Artemis blog for agency science and tech updates aboard Blue Ghost Mission 1, and Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 page for additional operational updates. 

Moon Bound: Blue Ghost Captures First Image, Performs Health Checks

On Jan. 15, Firefly Aerospace successfully launched 10 NASA science and technology instruments on the company’s first CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) delivery. The NASA instrument teams are performing initial health checks and collecting data ahead of the lunar landing in early March. Flight controllers for Blue Ghost Mission 1 said Wednesday that the company’s spacecraft continues to meet mission milestones including acquisition of signal, and maintaining communications through its Mission Operations Center in Cedar Park, Texas.

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 spacecraft in the darkness of space captures a first image from the top deck of its lunar lander.
The first image from space of Firefly’s Blue Ghost mission 1 lunar lander as it begins its 45-day transit period to the Moon. The top deck of the lander is visible here with the X-band antenna and NASA’s Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) payload. Credit: Firefly Aerospace

Six NASA payloads aboard the flight, including the Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC) technology demonstration, Stereo Camera for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS), Lunar PlanetVac (LPV), Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER), Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), and the Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) are already sending initial data back to Earth. All NASA payloads are healthy, and additional payload data sets are expected during this transit period, as the mission continues its 45-day trajectory before landing on the surface of the Moon.

Stay tuned to NASA’s Artemis blog for agency science and tech aboard Blue Ghost Mission 1 updates, as well as Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 page for additional operational updates.

Tune in to This Week’s Prelaunch Events for First Robotic Artemis Moon Flight 

Ahead of launch as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is preparing to be encapsulated in the payload fairing, or nose cone, of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket on Nov. 21, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Ahead of launch as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is preparing to be encapsulated in the payload fairing, or nose cone, of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket on Nov. 21, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch of Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will carry NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon in early 2024 to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties, and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment of the lunar surface. Photo credit: United Launch Alliance

Beginning at 11 a.m. EST today, tune in to NASA TV or the agency’s website for NASA’s lunar science media teleconference, which will highlight the NASA payloads flying on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander to the Moon as part of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis program. 

Participants include: 

  • Chris Culbert, Program Manager, NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services 
  • Niki Werkheiser, director, Technology Maturation, Space Technology Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters 
  • Paul Niles, CLPS project scientist, NASA’s Johnson Space Center 
  • Nic Stoffle, science and operations lead for Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer, NASA Johnson 
  • Tony Colaprete, principal investigator, Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System, NASA’s Ames Research Center 
  • Richard Elphic, principal investigator, Neutron Spectrometer System, NASA’s Ames Research Center 
  • Barbara Cohen, principal investigator, Peregrine Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center 
  • Daniel Cremons, deputy principal investigator for Laser Retroreflector Array, NASA Goddard

Then at 3 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 5, there will be a lunar delivery readiness media teleconference to confirm all payloads are go for launch.  

Participants include:  

  • Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for Exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters 
  • Ryan Watkins, program scientist, Exploration Science Strategy and Integration Office, NASA Headquarters 
  • John Thornton, CEO, Astrobotic 
  • Gary Wentz, vice president, Government and Commercial Programs, ULA 
  • Melody Lovin, launch weather officer, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron 

United Launch Alliance is scheduled to launch its Vulcan rocket and Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander at 2:18 a.m. EST Jan. 8 from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. 

Peregrine is targeting landing on the Moon on Feb. 23, 2024. The NASA payloads aboard the lander aim to help the agency develop capabilities needed to explore the Moon under Artemis and in advance of human missions on the lunar surface. Peregrine will land on a mare – an ancient hardened lava flow – outside of the Gruithuisen Domes, a geologic enigma along the mare/highlands boundary on the northeast border of Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms, the largest dark spot on the Moon. The payloads will investigate the lunar exosphere, thermal properties of the lunar regolith, hydrogen abundances in the soil at the landing site, magnetic fields, and conduct radiation environment monitoring.   

To learn more about some of the scientific research and technology demonstrations flying to the Moon as part of the CLPS initiative visit https://www.nasa.gov/clps