Stunning photos sent back from first ‘fully successful’ private Moon lander

This undated image released by Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost captures Earth reflecting off the solar panel with the Moon on the horizon. More than fifty years passed between the last Apollo mission and America's return to the lunar surface, when the first ever private lander touched down last February. Now, starting March 2, two more missions are set to follow within a single week -- marking a bold push by NASA and its industry partners to make Moon landings a routine part of space exploration. (Photo by Handout / Firefly Aerospace / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / Firefly Aerospace" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS (Photo by HANDOUT/Firefly Aerospace/AFP via Getty Images)
Earth reflecting off one of Blue Ghost’s solar panels with the Moon on the horizon (Picture: Firefly Aerospace/AFP via Getty)

Most of us will never get to experience the Overview Effect of looking back on Earth from the vacuum of space.

Without that option, we have to settle for photos beamed back from so far away.

Now, we’ve got some more to look at, after Blue Ghost became the first private spacecraft to make a ‘fully successul’ landing on the surface of the Moon.

Firefly Aerospace touched down their lander on Sunday morning without falling over or breaking anything.

It is carrying equipment for Nasa with the aim of doing ten experiments to learn more about the lunar surface and maybe even send people to live there in future.

In the meantime, it’s also doing a bit of sightseeing.

Just like any of us would at a beautiful landmark, it has taken plenty of selfies, including with our own blue dot in the background – ‘I made it!’ – and of couse, it has also been busy snapping the Moon.

In one striking shot, its own shadow can be seen on the pockmarked surface.

TOPSHOT - This handout photograph taken and released by Firefly Aerospace on March 2, 2025, shows the Firefly's Blue Ghost lander's shadow on the Moon's surface during its lunar landing as part of the Ghost Mission 1. A US company successfully landed its spacecraft on the Moon on March 2, 2025, making it only the second private lander to achieve this milestone, a live webcast from mission control showed. Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down at 3:34 am US Eastern Time (0834 GMT) near Mons Latreille, a volcanic formation in Mare Crisium on the Moon's northeastern near side. (Photo by Handout / Firefly Aerospace / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / Firefly Aerospace" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS (Photo by HANDOUT/Firefly Aerospace/AFP via Getty Images)
The Blue Ghost lander’s shadow on the Moon’s surface during its lunar landing (Picture: Firefly Aerospace/AFP via Getty)
The moon passes by Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost spaceship ahead of its landing
Blue Ghost passes by the Moon on February 24 ahread of its landing (Picture: Reuters)

Another photo was obscured by the glare from the sun as it postitioned itself on landing.

Last year, Intuitive Machines landed a spacecraft on the Moon named Odysseus, which managed to transmit data and worked with Nasa, but also broke a leg and tipped over.

It’s for this reason that Firefly are celebrating making history as the first to do it without a hitch.

The landing didn’t come with as much fanfare as the Apollo 11 landing in 1969, where people tuned in their TV sets across the world to watch Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin take the giant leap for mankind.

This image grab from a March 2, 2025 video and released by Firefly Aerospace shows Firefly's Blue Ghost lander during its lunar landing as part of the Ghost Mission 1. A US company successfully landed its spacecraft on the Moon on March 2, 2025, making it only the second private lander to achieve this milestone, a live webcast from mission control showed. Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down at 3:34 am US Eastern Time (0834 GMT) near Mons Latreille, a volcanic formation in Mare Crisium on the Moon's northeastern near side. (Photo by Handout / Firefly Aerospace / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / Firefly Aerospace" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS (Photo by HANDOUT/Firefly Aerospace/AFP via Getty Images)
Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander during its lunar landing today (Picture: Firefly Aerospace/AFP via Getty)

But it means Nasa is fully back in business on the lunar surface, after a decades-long hiatus when our satellite was just something we looked at in the sky.

They paid £115 million for the technology and the delivery, including a vacuum to suck up moon dirt for analysis, and a drill to measure temperature as deep as 10ft below the surface.

Launched in mid-January from Florida, Blue Ghost is the third mission under Nasa’s commercial lunar delivery program.

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It is part of preparations to send astronauts back later this decade as well as potentially go to Mars, and the hope is that competing private businesses will make space exploration cheaper and easier.

Firefly’s Ray Allensworth said the lander skipped over hazards including boulders to land safely.

He said the team continue to analyse the data to figure out the lander’s exact position, but all indications suggest it landed within the 328-foot target zone in Mare Crisium (the Sea of Crises).

This undated image released by Firefly Aerospace shows Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander taking an Earth selfie. More than fifty years passed between the last Apollo mission and America's return to the lunar surface, when the first ever private lander touched down last February. Now, starting March 2, two more missions are set to follow within a single week -- marking a bold push by NASA and its industry partners to make Moon landings a routine part of space exploration. (Photo by Handout / Firefly Aerospace / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / Firefly Aerospace" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS (Photo by HANDOUT/Firefly Aerospace/AFP via Getty Images)
The Blue Ghost lunar lander taking an Earth selfie on its way to the Moon (Picture: Firefly Aerospace/Getty)

The demos should get two weeks of run time, before lunar daytime ends and the lander shuts down.

Another lander – a 15ft device built and operated by Houston-based Intuitive Machines – is due to land on the Moon on Thursday. It is aiming for the bottom of the Moon, just 100 miles from the south pole.

A third lander from the Japanese company ispace is still three months from landing. It shared a rocket ride with Blue Ghost from Cape Canaveral on January 15, taking a longer, windier route.

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