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See a stunning view of a eclipse in space captured by the Blue Ghost mission

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Rendering of the Blue Ghost on the moon's surface.
Rendering of the Blue Ghost on the moon's surface. Firefly Aerospace

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost mission, launched earlier this month on a mission to the moon, has captured stunning video of the Earth eclipsing the sun as seen from space. The Blue Ghost lander is currently in orbit around the Earth, adjusting its trajectory so it can head toward the moon over the next several weeks. And while it is there, it has been collecting data using its science instruments and testing out its communication system.

“5 days into our mission and we’ve traveled 220,000 miles while downlinking 1.4 GB of data!” Firefly announced earlier this week. “There’s a long road ahead, but our #GhostRiders have already accomplished so much!”

The first image from space of Firefly’s Blue Ghost mission 1 lunar lander as it begins its 45-day transit period to the Moon. The top deck of the lander is visible here with the X-band antenna and NASA’s Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) payload.
The first image from space of Firefly’s Blue Ghost mission 1 lunar lander as it begins its 45-day transit period to the Moon. The top deck of the lander is visible here with the X-band antenna and NASA’s Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) payload. Firefly Aerospace

The company also shared this first image of the lander in space, which shows some of the six NASA payloads that are on board the spacecraft — including an X-ray instrument called LEXI which will look back at the Earth’s magnetosphere from the moon in the X-ray wavelength.

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The latest update from the mission is this video clip, showing the Earth moving in front of the sun and creating an eclipse:

Blue Ghost Mission 1 - Earth eclipse from Orbit

In addition, Firefly Aerospace also confirmed that it has acquired a signal from an experiment from NASA and the Italian Space Agency called the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE). This payload was able to make a connection with the global satellite system here on Earth from a distance of 205,674 miles, which is a new record. “This step towards establishing a navigation solution to the Moon marks another successful milestone for Firefly’s payload partners traveling aboard Blue Ghost,” the company wrote.

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“This achievement suggests that Earth-based GNSS constellations can be used for navigation at nearly 90% of the distance to the Moon, an Earth-Moon signal distance record,” NASA wrote about the achievement. “It also demonstrates the power of using multiple GNSS constellations together, such as GPS and Galileo, to perform navigation.”

Now, the Blue Ghost will continue its 25-day orbit of Earth before undertaking a four-day journey to the moon, aiming to enter lunar orbit in early March.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Space Writer
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
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See the first images of the Blue Ghost lander on the surface of the moon
Blue Ghost Mission 1 - Shadow on the Moon's Surface

With the arrival of the Blue Ghost lander on the moon this weekend, get ready for an influx of stunning new images from our planet's natural satellite. The mission, from Firefly Aerospace, touched down in the moon's Mare Crisium region yesterday, Sunday March 2, and the company has already shared the first images captured by the lander from its new home.

As well as a striking image showing the shadow of the lander on the moon's surface, seen above, another image shows the lander on the moon with the Earth visible in the night sky:

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Like throwing a dart and hitting the bullseye on a moving target in the next city over: that’s what it’s like trying to land a spacecraft on the moon. With an inhospitable surface of steep craters and inconvenient boulders, there are no landing pads, no GPS, no air traffic control, and no one to help if things go wrong.

This weekend, Firefly Aerospace will attempt to defy the odds and land its Blue Ghost spacecraft safely on the moon’s surface, touching down in the Mare Crisium region on the moon’s near side.

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Still from Firefly's Blue Ghost lander, captured during its third lunar orbit maneuver on February 24.

Just ahead of a planned lunar landing this weekend, Firefly Aerospace has shared more gorgeous footage from its Blue Ghost mission. Currently in low lunar orbit, the spacecraft is passing within 60 miles of the moon's surface and has captured a stunning video as it sweeps over the surface of the moon.

"Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander captured more incredible footage of the Moon during its third lunar orbit maneuver on February 24 that inserted the spacecraft in a near-circular low lunar orbit," Firefly wrote in an update. "The video below, sped up by 10X, was taken about 100 km above the lunar surface, showing the far side of the Moon and a top-down view of Blue Ghost’s RCS thrusters (center) and radiator panels on each side. The radiator panels are moving nominally to protect Blue Ghost’s subsystems from extreme temperatures."

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