A SpaceX Falcon 9 on Jan. 15 at 0611 UTC launched two lunar landers, Resilience and Blue Ghost, to the moon as part of a mission to observe Earth’s magnetic field and gather valuable scientific data.
The two lunar landers — Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and Resilience, built by the Japanese company ispace — lifted off aboard the Falcon 9 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) here on Florida's Space Coast. The rocket's first stage returned to Earth as planned, touching down about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, on SpaceX's "Just Read the Instructions" droneship, stationed miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Falcon 9's upper stage continued spaceward as planned, deploying Blue Ghost to a lunar transfer orbit about 65 minutes after launch; and Resilience 27 minutes later.
This Blue Ghost flight, named Ghost Riders in the Sky, is Firefly's first mission to the moon and is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The lander is carrying 10 NASA research and technology payloads designed to further the space agency's understanding of the lunar environment, as it plans to send astronauts back to the moon as a part of the Artemis Program.
Blue Ghost will spend 25 days in Earth orbit, undergoing systems checks and beginning operations of some of its scientific payloads. It will then start a four-day trek to lunar orbit, where it will stay for an additional 16 days before attempting a touchdown in Mare Crisium ("Sea of Crises"), on the northeasterm part of the moon's near side.
Once on the surface of the moon, Blue Ghost will have about two weeks — a full lunar day — for its scientific and research operations. The solar-powered lander's 10 CLPS payloads is a record for the lunar cargo delivery program. Many of the investigations are focused on investigations into lunar regolith, or moon dust.
Blue Ghost is carrying 10 NASA science and technology instruments to the lunar surface, including the Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) instrument, which will help NASA better understand Earth’s magnetic field and how it responds to space weather. The Resilience lander, built by the Japanese firm ispace, will also conduct experiments and gather data on the moon’s surface, with a focus on testing technologies for future human missions.
Resilience is taking a very energy-efficient path to the moon. It will take longer to get there after Blue Ghost does, and will touch down in Mare Frigoris ("Sea of Cold"), in the moon's northern hemisphere, about 4.5 months from today.
Once on the moon's surface, Resilience will deploy one of its payloads, a microrover named Tenacious. The rover is designed to collect a sample of regolith as part of a separate contract with NASA.
