Blue Ghost, a private spaceship, touches down on the moon.

A private spaceship has made history by landing on the Moon, making it the second commercial vehicle to do so.

The US company Firefly Aerospace launched Blue Ghost on January 15 with the goal of exploring the Sea of Crises, a massive crater that is visible from Earth.
The project is the most recent partnership between commercial businesses and the US space agency, NASA.

In the coming days, another company, Intuitive Machines, hopes to land its Athena spacecraft close to the Moon's south pole.
The first private firm to arrive on the moon was Intuitive. Last February 22, its spacecraft Odysseus made it to the Moon.

 

The spacecraft landed on a crater's slope, destroyed some landing gear, and overturned, ending the mission's brief existence.
After two weeks of orbiting the Moon, Blue Ghost made a clean landing.
When they learnt that their landing was successful, employees at Firefly's headquarters in Texas cheered and applauded.

"Blue Ghost was basically the first successful private venture to the Moon because the vehicle was intact and responsive," said Dr. Simeon Barber, a planetary science specialist from the Open University.
He stated on BBC Breakfast: "[They've] demonstrated a technology for landing on the surface of the Moon, the kind that had been forgotten after the Apollo era when we had astronauts on the [lunar] surface."

 

According to Dr. Barber, the Moon is significant to many commercial companies because it can be used as a starting point for space exploration.
"We can learn how to operate robotic instruments in space [and] in the extremely harsh environment of the Moon, which is hot and cold at different periods, by travelling there. There's a lot of radiation and a lot of dust."
Humans would probably return to the lunar surface at some time, he added, adding that the reason it had taken so long was a lack of finance.


On December 19, 1972, as part of the Apollo 17 mission, humanity made their final landing on the moon.

According to Dr. Barber, "the Apollo missions were hugely successful," "But they were 'touch and go' missions."
At the time, astronauts had to leave after three days because the expenses were in the billions of dollars. "That's not sustainable," he declared.
According to Dr. Barber, it is presently thought that integrating private businesses will lower prices because of commercial competitiveness.
Cheaper landers and inventions that might take resources from the moon, like drinking water for the astronauts, could result from it.

Another American company, Astrobotic Technology, was the first private enterprise to try to reach the moon.
They launched an attempt to reach the moon in January 2024, however due to a suspected fuel leak, their lander crashed back to Earth before reaching the moon.
The spaceship broke apart in its last seconds before crashing into the southern Pacific Ocean as a result of the catastrophic drop.