space

Headed to the moon, Firefly's Blue Ghost snaps a shot of Earth

Texas-based Firefly Aerospace says they're targeting Blue Ghost for a moon touchdown on March 2

A view of Earth captured by Firefly’s Blue Ghost while in Earth orbit, January 2025.
Firefly Aerospace

A private U.S. spacecraft bound for the moon has captured stunning images of Earth one week into its flight.

Still circling Earth, Firefly Aerospace’s lunar lander fired its thrusters Thursday to put it on a path to reach the moon in over a month. Dubbed Blue Ghost, the spacecraft beamed back photos and videos of the Blue Marble, our planet.

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The Cedar Park, Texas-based company released the images Friday.

It carries experiments for NASA, part of the space agency’s effort to return astronauts to the moon this decade.

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Blue Ghost is one of two lunar landers launched from Florida by SpaceX on Jan. 15. It's targeting a moon touchdown on March 2. The other lander is sponsored by the Japanese company ispace and taking an even longer route, with a landing in late May or early June.

The company also shared a short clip of Earth as seen during Blue Ghost's second Earth orbit burn.

Blue Ghost Mission 1 - Earth View During Blue Ghost's Second Earth Orbit Burn

It's the first moonshot for Firefly and the second for ispace, which crashed its first lander into the moon in 2023. Tokyo-based ispace's latest lander, Resilience, is still orbiting Earth and performing all its maneuvers to close in on the moon.

Copyright The Associated Press
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