It was a perfect moon landing.
Although no easy feat, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander descended in a controlled fashion, and without mishap, to the lunar surface on March 2, becoming the first commercial spacecraft to have a fully successful landing on the moon. And NASA cameras affixed to the bottom of the robotic craft filmed footage of the descent and dusty touchdown.
The NASA instrument, called Stereo Cameras for Lunar-Plume Surface Studies, or (SCALPSS), captured 3,000 frames during the operation. This “first-of-its-kind” imagery will inform future landing missions — both crewed and robotic — about how plumes of moon dust behave as thrusters file into the lunar regolith, and how such plumes impact nearby craft or infrastructure.
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