Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander aims for touchdown

By Jackie Wattles and Taylor Nicioli, Mar 2: A robotic lunar lander built by Texas-based company Firefly is set to attempt a soft landing on the moon, aiming to touch down at 2:34 a.m. CT (3:34 a.m. ET).

The lander, called Blue Ghost, launched into orbit on a SpaceX rocket in January, spent some time in Earth’s orbit and has been manoeuvring toward the moon ever since.

If successful, Firefly will become only the second private-sector company ever to complete such a feat. Several have failed in the past.

Firefly is carrying out this mission as a contractor under NASA’s CLPS and Artemis programs, which aim to use robotic landers to scout the moon before humans return later this decade.

Blue Ghost is "GO" for landing

This lander just ticked through another key milestone: A go no-go poll.

That’s when a round-robin of mission controllers vocally verify that Blue Ghost’s systems are looking good for a landing attempt.

Raucous cheers erupted as each of the controllers declared “GO.”