Published on Mar. 7, 2025, 10:12 PM
Commercial missions to the Moon are becoming easier, but there are still hurdles to cross for those attempting to reach the lunar south pole.
Two private lunar landers touched down on the surface of the Moon this week. While one is now conducting science from one of the vast lunar 'seas', the other did not fair as well near the Moon's south pole.
At 3:34 a.m. EST, on March 2, 2025, the first of Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar landers successfully reached the surface, setting down in Mare Crisium, near a small 'mountain' called Mons Latreille. This mission, dubbed "Ghost Riders in the Sky", is the company's first flight to the Moon, and marks the first fully successful lunar landing by a private space company.
"Blue Ghost Mission 1 delivered 10 science and technology instruments to the lunar surface as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative," Firefly Aerospace wrote on their website. "Upon launching on January 15, Blue Ghost spent approximately 45 days traveling to the Moon, allowing ample time to conduct health checks on each subsystem and begin payload science. Blue Ghost then successfully landed in Mare Crisium on March 2 and is now operating payloads for a complete lunar day (about 14 Earth days)."
"On March 14, Firefly expects to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse when the Earth blocks the sun above the Moon’s horizon. Blue Ghost will then capture the lunar sunset on March 16, providing data on how lunar dust levitates due to solar influences and creates a lunar horizon glow first documented by Eugene Cernan on Apollo 17. Following sunset, Blue Ghost will operate several hours into the lunar night."
Just over 4 days later, at 12:30 p.m. EST on March 6, 2025, Intuitive Machines attempted their second landing at the lunar south pole.
Their first mission, IM-1 or Odysseus, made it to the surface in this same region of the Moon back in February 2024. Unfortunately, during the landing, one of Odysseus' legs broke, leaving the lander tipped over, lying on its side. Although the company was able to retrieve data from Odysseus, its mission ended shortly after.