Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost moon lander is currently on a historic journey to the moon, marking an exciting milestone in space exploration. After successfully completing its first engine burn, Blue Ghost is set for a journey that will take a total of 45 days to reach the lunar surface.

The lander continues to orbit Earth for an additional 21 days before embarking on a critical four-day trajectory to lunar orbit. Once it arrives, Blue Ghost will spend 16 days circling the moon in preparation for its eagerly anticipated landing attempt.

In an incredible update released by NASA on January 20, a scientific payload aboard Blue Ghost, known as the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), successfully acquired a navigation signal while being 205,674 miles (331,000 kilometers) from Earth. Accompanying this announcement was a stunning timelapse video that captured the breathtaking moment Earth eclipsed the sun, as seen from the lander’s vantage point on its journey to the moon.

The LuGRE instrument is designed to test satellite-based positioning, navigation, and timing systems in proximity to the moon, similar to GPS technology used on Earth. Remarkably, it achieved a milestone by acquiring signals from both GPS and European Galileo navigation satellites while at 90% of the distance to the moon—setting a new Earth-Moon 'signal distance record,' according to NASA.

As Blue Ghost continues its mission, both NASA and Firefly Aerospace have confirmed that the lander remains in good health, ready to transition into lunar orbit next month. A recent update from Firefly Aerospace on X revealed that the spacecraft executed its first burn with impressive precision, positioning it favorably for its upcoming translunar injection burn, crucial to its lunar ascent.

Launched on January 15 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Blue Ghost isn't just carrying itself—it’s also traveling alongside ispace's Resilience lander. Once it reaches the lunar surface, Blue Ghost will deploy and operate a total of 10 NASA science experiments, boasting a design capability to function for approximately two Earth weeks, or one lunar day, before the lunar night falls and the sun sets.

In a particularly intriguing feature of its mission, Blue Ghost will capture images of the lunar sunset and analyze how moon dust reacts to dusk in real-time. It will be able to operate for several hours into the moon's night before its power is depleted.

Stay tuned as Blue Ghost continues its extraordinary voyage! Will it revolutionize our understanding of lunar navigation and pave the way for future moon missions? Only time—and perhaps an eclipse—will tell!