SpaceX is now targeting mid-January for the launch of its private moon lander, “Blue Ghost.” The mission, known as “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” will see Blue Ghost ride to space aboard SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.
A second moon lander, built by Japanese company ispace, will also be included on the flight. The Resilience moon lander was previously attempted to land on the moon in April 2023 but crashed due to a faulty valve.
Once launched, Blue Ghost will spend 25 days orbiting Earth before performing an engine burn to put it on a lunar transit trajectory. It will then spend 16 days orbiting the moon while preparing for an autonomous landing on the surface. The lander’s destination is Mare Crisium, a large basaltic plain.
Blue Ghost will carry 10 NASA-led science experiments and technology demonstrators to the lunar surface as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program. One experiment aims to observe Earth’s magnetic field and monitor its behavior when bombarded by solar particles. Another instrument will study the electrical conductivity of the moon’s interior.
The mission will be live-streamed, and viewers can watch how to access it on NASA and SpaceX’s websites. Blue Ghost is expected to make a successful landing, becoming the second CLPS mission to reach the lunar surface after Intuitive Machine’s IM-1 Odysseus mission in February 2024.
Source: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-launch-of-private-blue-ghost-moon-lander-set-for-jan-15