SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:11 AM local time, lighting up the sky as it carried two spacecraft on a journey to the Moon. On board were two robotic lunar landers: the Blue Ghost from American private aerospace company Firefly Aerospace and the Resilience lander from Japanese firm ispace.
The two spacecraft, loaded with scientific instruments, are part of a year for lunar exploration, with multiple missions planned as part of efforts to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon, India Today noted. To reduce costs, the landers shared the ride aboard the Falcon 9 but separated an hour into the flight as planned, embarking on different routes for their months-long journey, according to TIME Magazine.
Blue Ghost, a two-meter lander developed by Firefly Aerospace, will attempt a landing in the Mare Crisium region on March 2, 2024, within a 100-meter ellipse, Science reported. Resilience is targeting a touchdown in late May or June 2024 at Mare Frigoris, located in the Moon's northern reaches, as stated by CBC News.
This mission marks ispace's second attempt at a lunar landing after its first lander, Hakuto-R, crashed during its landing attempt in April 2023 due to imprecise data about the spacecraft's altitude, according to TIME Magazine. "We don't think this is a race. Some people say 'race to the moon,' but it's not about speed," said Takeshi Hakamada, ispace's founder and CEO, according to TIME Magazine.
Blue Ghost is carrying ten science and technology instruments for NASA as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which aims to reduce lunar mission costs, Nature noted. The lander will conduct research over about two weeks, including studying how lunar dust adheres to materials, which could inform future attempts to build a Moon base, as reported by BFMTV. Among the experiments on Firefly's Blue Ghost lander is a vacuum designed to gather lunar dirt using bursts of compressed air.
Resilience is carrying a miniature red house dubbed the Moonhouse, created by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, which symbolizes humanity's ability to achieve the unattainable through thoughts and collaborations, according to TIME Magazine. Once on the lunar surface, ispace's 11-pound rover, Tenacious, will stay near the lander, traveling up to hundreds of yards in circles at a speed of less than one inch per second, TIME Magazine reported.
This mission comes amid renewed global interest in lunar exploration. NASA's Artemis program, the successor to Apollo, aims to return astronauts to the Moon by the end of the decade, with a lunar landing planned for 2027, as stated by TIME Magazine. NASA has contracted private companies, including Firefly Aerospace, under the CLPS program to send equipment and technologies to the Moon, aiming to reduce mission costs.
Earlier, Intuitive Machines, another U.S.-based private company, achieved the first U.S. lunar touchdown in more than fifty years with its Nova-C lander, marking a milestone in private space exploration. These missions aim to deepen knowledge about the Moon and assist in preparing for future human missions, which could impact human society, the economy, and the environment.
Less than nine minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage landed on the Just Read The Instructions droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, Science noted. "Each flight we're part of is a vital step in the larger blueprint to establish a responsible, sustained human presence at the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Each scientific instrument and technology demonstration brings us closer to realizing our vision," stated Pam Melroy, NASA Deputy Administrator, according to The Verge.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.