Firefly's Success
In a first for a commercial company, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander made a fully successful landing on the surface of the Moon. The landing occurred in the Mare Crisium on the lunar nearside early on the morning of Sunday, March 2nd at 3:34 a.m. EST / 8:34 UT.
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| Blue Ghost sees its shadow, on the surface of the Moon Firefly Aerospace |
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| Firefly's Blue Ghost lander witnessed lunar sunrise — the start of a new day on the Moon and two weeks of activities NASA |
Read the complete story at Sky and Telescope
Intuitive Machines not so successful
Athena landed in the lunar south pole region but fell on its side. After its batteries quickly depleted, the mission ended.
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| This photo of the lunar surface was taken from the Athena lander on approach. Intuitive Machines |
Athena entered lunar orbit on March 3rd and initiated an initial descent orbit insertion (DOI) burn on March 6th at 5:33 a.m. EST / 10:33 UT, snapping images as it went. It touched down in the Mon Mouton region at 12:30 p.m. EST / 17:30 UT. However, early indications showed that the Nova-C lander was "not in the correct attitude," said Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, in a press conference Thursday afternoon. Indeed, a later image from the spacecraft confirmed it had landed on its side, similar to the fate of the company's first attempt, a year ago.
Athena managed to send back pictures confirming its position and activate a few experiments before going silent.
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| Athena took a picture from the surface of the Moon that showed the lander on its side. Intuitive Machines |
Full story at Sky and Telescope
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