Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 is just days away from landing on the Moon, with the lunar orbit maneuver scheduled to take place on Monday, February 24. The final maneuver will insert the lander into a near-circular low lunar orbit, bringing it closer to the surface.
In preparation for the landing, Blue Ghost will complete its Descent Orbit Insertion burn one hour before touchdown, which will initiate the descent trajectory toward Mare Crisium, on the Moon’s near side. Live coverage of the landing will air on NASA+ and Firefly’s YouTube channel starting at 2:30 a.m. EST.
The mission has seen several notable achievements, including the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) acquiring Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals for the first time in lunar orbit. This achievement suggests that Earth-based GNSS constellations can be used for navigation on the Moon. LuGRE will operate on the lunar surface for 14 days and attempt to break a record by receiving GNSS signals.
The Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) telescope has also been successfully operating since launch, conducting checkouts and initial commissioning. The instrument has operated for over 50 hours so far and is prepared to collect images from the lunar surface.
Follow along on NASA’s Artemis Blog and Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 page for additional mission updates as Blue Ghost approaches its historic lunar landing.
Source: https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/2025/02/21/blue-ghost-prepares-for-landing-nasa-instrument-breaks-record