Blue Ghost successfully completes a soft landing
Blue Ghost’s shadow on the Moon,
with the Earth in the background.
Firefly tonight became the second private commercial company to land a spacecraft softly on the Moon, its Blue Ghost successfully touching down within Mare Crisium on the northwest quadrant of the visible near side.
At this moment we do not have details about the spacecraft’s condition. Nonetheless NASA bigwigs have come out of hiding to celebrate (if the landing failed they would have likely quietly disappeared). Lots of blather about “important scientific research” but the most important data from this mission is the engineering.
I think the viewers would much rather stay with mission control to hear details about Blue Ghost’s condition. One big unknown is that, of the four landing leg pads, one did not register contact with the ground, though this appears to simply be a failure of the sensor. Just after landing one engineer in mission controler announced the spacecraft was stable, but more information would be of more useful than listening to upper managers from NASA puff themselves. (It is also getting tiresome that the announcers seem incapable of asking anything but “How do you feel?”, one of the most useless questions a journalist can ever ask.)
The first photos are expected shortly. I will update when available.
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Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Blue Ghost’s shadow on the Moon,
with the Earth in the background.
Firefly tonight became the second private commercial company to land a spacecraft softly on the Moon, its Blue Ghost successfully touching down within Mare Crisium on the northwest quadrant of the visible near side.
At this moment we do not have details about the spacecraft’s condition. Nonetheless NASA bigwigs have come out of hiding to celebrate (if the landing failed they would have likely quietly disappeared). Lots of blather about “important scientific research” but the most important data from this mission is the engineering.
I think the viewers would much rather stay with mission control to hear details about Blue Ghost’s condition. One big unknown is that, of the four landing leg pads, one did not register contact with the ground, though this appears to simply be a failure of the sensor. Just after landing one engineer in mission controler announced the spacecraft was stable, but more information would be of more useful than listening to upper managers from NASA puff themselves. (It is also getting tiresome that the announcers seem incapable of asking anything but “How do you feel?”, one of the most useless questions a journalist can ever ask.)
The first photos are expected shortly. I will update when available.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
It took ten years longer than Google thought, when they created their X-Prize for a commercial landing on the Moon, although their prize also required a 500 meter transit as well as a landing. We will have to see whether the hopper travels far enough to meet that (long-since cancelled) prize.
It sure looks like Firefly doesn’t have any male employees.
https://www.sciencealert.com/women-talk-more-than-men-after-all-and-by-quite-a-lot
And they expect men to be mind-readers
Edward – I did not stay up but went to the Firefly stream and fast forwarded to about 10 minutes before landing. I was struck the same way you were. It looks to me like the mix of people in Mission Control in Austin were about what you would expect in modern aerospace companies, mostly men, but certainly a significant number of women at consoles.
It appears that either NASA or Firefly (they ARE based out of AUSTIN – e.g. Central San Francisco-after all) or both chose to present “Girl Power!” for their forward-facing commentators.
I am learning to live with it as my sons have families consisting of a fair number of granddaughters. The girls aged 8 to 14 have career aspirations from neurosurgeon to astronaut to coffee shop barista.
Still, it is refreshing to see that modern space (except for Blue Origin) chooses to use actual engineers to present and explain to the public. Thank you, SpaceX, for starting that trend. I miss John Insprucker on the streams.
Doubting Thomas: While I agree that it is great having actual engineers acting as anchors, the problem with Firefly’s broadcast yesterday was with what I think were the NASA anchors, all of whom seemed to know almost nothing and could only repeat over and over again, “Wasn’t that exciting?” while asking over and over again, “How to do you feel?” Very unprofessional, very uninteresting, and after the first time very boring.
It seems to me that SpaceX demands higher quality from NASA during joint broadcasts with the agency.
I’m going to put my vote in for John Insprucker, as the current Space-Announcer-Guy-To-Emulate.
https://www.elonx.net/spacex-superstars-john-l-insprucker-principal-integration-engineer/
Haven’t been following this Blue Ghost thing, at all.
Is there some reason for the absence of high-quality, real-time, landing video?
A picture is worth a thousand words, but high-quality landing video= priceless.
Most of the Blue Ghost engineering team is, in fact, men. Here’s a group shot from 2022, for example:
https://fireflyspace.com/news/firefly-completes-integration-readiness-review-for-blue-ghost-lunar-lander/
For some reason, though, Firefly, like many other space companies, leads these broadcasts mostly with their women employees.
There are still good engineers who work for NASA – my next door neighbor is one of them – but they never seem to come within a hundred statute miles of a broadcast or stream. I second Wayne’s call for John Insprucker as the beau ideal.
P.S. Congratulations to the Firefly team!
Wayne asks: Is there some reason for the absence of high-quality, real-time, landing video?
In space terms, the moon is right next door. But in RF propagation terms, it’s a long ways. I’m not sure what stations are listening to that probe, whether it’s something Firefly set up themselves, if they’re tied into some of the higher-energy local NASA networks, or if they’re using the DSN. But whichever it is, just the receiving stations are going to impose bandwidth limits that may not be anywhere near what is required for a decent video stream. And even if the receiving networks had that bandwidth, that little lander most certainly doesn’t have the energy budget to run a transmitter with the power to pump out that much signal.
Cislunar and interplanetary communication is hard, and the data rates are not high, especially on small commercial vehicles with limited budget, equipment and power. So images, and especially video, take time to transmit.
We joke and complain about the yakking and the DEI (which is breathing very queerly, when it does breathe at all—points for the first to place the reference) but of course this was a huge accomplishment. Congrats Firefly!
Robert – I agree, NASA PR people must get a lobotomy after they are hired. I was sad to see that the commentary was joint NASA – Firefly. I yearn for Shorty Powers, The VOICE OF Mercury control.
Regarding absence of high quality real time video.
This link by Australian, Marcus House, talks about the complexity of lunar communications and the linkage to Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlv8z_SfveM&t=13s
“Firefly doesn’t have any male employees”
https://t.ly/yEcW5
In comparing Blue Ghost to Google’s expired Lunar X-Prize, I wrote: “We will have to see whether the hopper travels far enough to meet that (long-since cancelled) prize.”
The hopper is not aboard Blue Ghost but is aboard another lunar lander on its way to the Moon. There are too many lunar landers for me to keep track of!
Wait. Did I just say that there are too many lunar landers? Commercial lunar landers? I must have lost my mind! There can never be too many commercial lunar landers. Having a lot of lunar landers is a good thing, and they are likely to lead to a lot of commercial manned lunar landings.
All I can say is: If anyone sees my lost mind, please tell it that I miss it.
Yeah, Blue Ghost has no rovers or hoppers. But it does have ten science instruments, some of which are very exciting. LISTER (Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity), for example, will be able to drill as much as 3 meters into the lunar surface — to measure heat flow from the interior of the Moon.
We have to wait just a few more days for Intuitive Machines to get that hopper on the Moon….
Honestly, this should be the most exciting and scientifically productive month since 1972 for American lunar scientists.
Congrats to Firefly as the mission looks to be a great success.
I set my alarm to wake up 5 minutes before the landing. Not nearly as exciting as Apollo 11, but detailed enough and gratifying to see succeed.. But the post landing gab fest was ABYSMAL and I turned it off after just 5 minutes. I understand the complexities of high data rate comms and it was not worth the pain to listen to the drivel just to see a low res pic 20 or 30 minutes later.
But I look forward to Bob’s technical follow-ups here on BtB in the weeks ahead!
One of the best “Postcards from the Moon” … “wish you were here” pics I’ve seen with the lander shadow and the Earth in the background !
Congratulations Blue Ghost/Firefly team!
Any thoughts on why the big delay in getting pictures of the landing area, and/or videos of the landing? Seems odd.
David / Patrick–
Thanks for the info, ref communications. Is this primarily a weight or a power limitation thing?
Apollo Comms Part 22:
How NASA Upgraded the Moon TV to Color
https://youtu.be/msWnY2zKS9o
23:10
Got caught up in this new video from Everyday Astronaut and it got me wondering.
How Apollo 11 utilized live TV
Everyday Astronaut (2-27-25)
https://youtu.be/fMHLvoWZfqQ?t=4381
Hi Wayne, I’ll defer to David for a proper response, but just note (from a quick search) that both the mass and power of the LM are almost exactly 10x Blue Ghost—15,000 kg vs 1,500 kg, 4000 W vs 400 W. Interesting!
Housekeeping: the last couple of days I’ve been getting this weird error message when I try to post: “You are posting comments too quickly. Slow down.” After a single attempt.
wayne asked: “… ref communications. Is this primarily a weight or a power limitation thing?”
It is kind of both. The farther you are trying to transmit, the slower the data rate. A way around this is to use more power, but that requires a larger solar panel and/or a larger antenna, so: both power and weight. Another way around is to use a parabolic (or other directional) antenna, which adds weight, especially since it needs a mechanism for pointing to the receiver.
New Horizons had this same dilemma. The scientists could sacrifice an instrument for a faster data stream, or they could keep the instrument (more data to stream) and wait longer for their prized data (think of the old “anticipation” catsup commercial).
If the mission requires the imminent destruction of the probe (e.g. the DART collider), then a faster data stream is desirable, but if you expect the probe to survive the encounter (e.g. DART’s companion spacecraft), then a slower data stream is a viable option.
With ten instruments, a camera, and a bunch of engineering data, there is probably a lot of data for Blue Ghost to transmit.
Starlink has high throughput, because its satellites are in relatively close proximity to their receivers. Cell phone towers have similar proximity advantages.
Landing video is up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpHhEybJdxg
Patrick Underwood,
Thank you for the link. It was beautiful.
You’re welcome, Edward! It was beautiful, wasn’t it? What a week… Starship flight 8 tomorrow (hopefully), IM2 landing Thursday.
Ok, feeling better about the video!