The Information
American area startup Firefly turned the second ever personal agency to soft-land on the Moon Sunday after its Blue Ghost lander touched down on the lunar floor.
The NASA-funded spacecraft holds ten experiments: The area company hopes Blue Ghost and other commercial probes will assist it reply questions concerning the lunar surroundings in preparation for its deliberate astronaut missions later this decade.
The feat comes a 12 months after one other startup, Intuitive Machines, turned the primary firm to land on the Moon; the corporate’s second lander on account of arrive there within the coming week.
The back-to-back landings are a part of a broad surge in personal area exploration that analysts have mentioned represents the foundations of a lunar economy: The Moon has the pure assets to make rocket propellant, for instance, and will act as a launchpad for future missions additional into area — together with to doubtlessly mine metal-rich asteroids.
