Sunset filmed from the Moon

(Patria) - The "Blue Ghost" spacecraft, of the American private company "Firefly Aerospace", recorded a sunset before the end of its mission on the Moon, reports Index.



"Firefly Aerospace" released the last recording made by their spacecraft. The Texas-based company completed its first lunar mission last week after "Blue Ghost" spent a full lunar day on Earth's satellite, which is equivalent to 14 days on Earth.

"Blue Ghost" spent about five hours in the lunar night before succumbing to extremely low temperatures (it was not designed to survive such low temperatures).



The one-minute video is composed of footage captured by various cameras on "Blue Ghost", then joined into a single complete recording. The video also features Earth and Venus, shining just above the lunar surface. NASA's team behind the mission will further analyze the images and share their findings.

"Blue Ghost" landed on the Moon on Sunday, March 2, with ten NASA instruments designed to study the lunar surface and collect data that will aid future human missions.



This mission is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which sends payloads to the Moon using commercial spacecraft.

"Blue Ghost" completed 14 days of surface operations, deploying its instruments and transmitting over 119 gigabytes of data back to Earth. This was the longest commercial mission to the Moon to date and the first in a series of spacecraft scheduled to land on the Moon annually.



During the mission, "Firefly" shared a series of incredible images. The spacecraft captured an impressive video of its descent towards the crater-filled lunar surface. On March 14, "Blue Ghost" also recorded a total solar eclipse from the Moon, while Earth simultaneously experienced a total lunar eclipse.

With the "Ghost Riders to the Sky" mission, "Firefly" became the second company to land on the Moon and the first whose lander remained upright after landing (Intuitive Machines landed on the Moon in February 2024, but their lander Odysseus ended up on its side).

The company is already preparing its second mission to the Moon and plans to land on the lunar surface annually.