A private company has successfully landed on the Moon for the first time

[Daniel Sims]

What just happened? Multiple governments and companies have struggled to land spacecraft safely on the Moon in recent years. As NASA's goal of sending humans to the lunar surface for the first time in over half a century faces repeated delays, a Texas-based company has become the first private entity to complete a fully successful landing.

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 lander successfully touched down on the lunar surface at 3:34 a.m. ET (02:34 CST) on Sunday, becoming the first non-governmental object to land on the Moon without issue. The feat marks an early step in NASA's efforts to establish a lunar economy.

The two-meter lander lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 15, embarking on a leisurely 45-day mission to the Moon. In the hours following touchdown, the Blue Ghost transmitted impressive images of its thrusters, antenna, and shadow on the lunar surface, visually confirming a fully successful mission. It recently sent a photo of a sunrise (below).

Two other private companies previously attempted Moon landings, one was a failure and the other was a partial success. In 2023, Japanese firm ispace lost contact with its Hakuto lander in the final minutes of its descent, indicating that it likely crashed. The Odysseus lander from Intuitive Machines touched down the following year, becoming the first American craft to reach the Moon since 1972, but it fell over after a rough landing, shortening the mission.

Governments have also recently encountered problems. Russia's LUNA-25 mission crashed in 2023, and Japan's SLIM craft landed upside down last year. Although the partially successful mission made Japan the fifth country to send an object to the Moon intact, the lander failed to receive sufficient power to complete its mission.

The United States' Artemis I mission successfully orbited the moon in 2023, but the next phase – Artemis II's manned flyby – has suffered multiple delays. If it succeeds next year, the US might send the first astronauts to the lunar surface in over 50 years as soon as 2027.

Multiple governments and companies are planning infrastructure projects on the Moon, including data centers, rail lines, concrete buildings, nuclear reactors, and more. NASA science instruments onboard the Blue Ghost will conduct experiments to begin laying the groundwork for future commercial missions.

For those wondering why reaching the Moon seems harder than it was in the 1960s and 70s, money and safety are the primary reasons. A lengthy 2024 report from Scientific American explains that the Artemis missions are trying to repeat what Apollo accomplished with fewer missions, more safely, and at a fraction of the budget.

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A private company has successfully landed on the Moon for the first time

 

[gamerk2]

For those wondering why reaching the Moon seems harder than it was in the 1960s and 70s, money and safety are the primary reasons. A lengthy 2024 report from Scientific American explains that the Artemis missions are trying to repeat what Apollo accomplished with fewer missions, more safely, and at a fraction of the budget.

News flash: Throwing crazy money at a problem allows it to be solved in a much shorter period of time then trying to do it with a fraction of the budget.

In related news: Water is the property that applies the attribute of "wetness" to other objects.

 

[TheBigT42]

It's fake. It is all CGI and special effects done in a Hollywood Studio.

/s

Edit
/s = sarcasm

 

[Dreadcthulhu]

It's fake. It is all CGI and special effects done in a Hollywood Studio.

/s

Did you know that the US government hired Stanley Kubrick to fake the Moon Landings back in the 1960s? However, since he was a such a perfectionist he insisted that they film on location.

 

[Underdog]

It's fake. It is all CGI and special effects done in a Hollywood Studio.

/s

Much safer and saves a bundle of cash.

 

[Eddo22]

Yes it's a bunch of cgi fakery.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

Job 37:18 Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?

Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

 

[wiyosaya]

Surprise, surprise. Other private companies can do "The Moon" too.

 

[Crabjuice]

Yes it's a bunch of cgi fakery.

I hope you aren't serious.

 

[TheBigT42]

I hope you aren't serious.

/s = sarcasm

 

[Tantor]

Sorry, but images of thrusters, antenna, and shadows do not visually confirm a fully successful mission. Those photos could have been taken anywhere.

The only way to 'prove' the landing is legit is to take a decent photo of the stars. The original moon mission failed to take even one photo of the stars. The usual excuse is that the light of the sun effectively blotted out the stars. That is true if you have an atmosphere that refracts the light. But there is no atmosphere in space. Simply aiming the camera away from the sun or adding a long sunshade should have been enough to eliminate the sun as a concern.

But that's a moot point. The moon rotates once every 28 days. Just wait a few days and the camera will be in a dark zone and should EASILY capture excellent photos of the stars and earth.

IMHO, the original mission was obviously fake. They went all that way and didn't even get a good shot of the stars. It's beyond pathetic.

 

[VOZA0DB]

Well... We still can't land cars on it so wake me up when we are able to do that, again... or for the 1st time!

 

[scavengerspc]

IMHO, the original mission was obviously fake.

And anyone that knows you is not one bit surprised you say that.
It has been "debated" for over 55 years, but you say the "fakery" is obvious. Please spare us.

 

[Joey Rakas]

Yes it's a bunch of cgi fakery.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

Job 37:18 Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?

Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

While I myself am a skeptic, especially when it comes to tax payer funded organizations that have a 20+ billion dollar budgets; it is also important to note that the word firmament has varying definitions such as "expanse" and also to note that "heaven" can also simply mean "Sky" or "The Sky". The Bible itself refers to the third heaven, implying there different tiers of heaven. Be you someone who is a "flat-earther" or spherical-earther, or any of the in-betweens, there is an undeniable amount of truth yet to be told that has been hidden from the population for a long time. Hec think of the word angel; people to this day have this image that they are basically beautiful men with wings. When in reality the ancient Hebrew word for angel simply meant messenger. And the depictions in the bible of such messengers is far from what Christendom has painted them out to be.

Regardless, these moon landings, especially with all of our technical prowess, seem to lack certain proofs. And even if they are truly happening, other than the millions of tons of fossil fuels being burnt into our atmosphere, what have the billions invested in going to the moon actually done to help humanity? Here they cry for climate change lol. Perhaps send themselves to the moon? Problems solved.

 

[AnilD]

It’s fascinating how landing on the Moon in the 60s seemed “easier” than it is now, but when you consider the budget constraints and safety expectations of modern missions, it makes sense. Apollo was a sprint; Artemis is playing the long game.

 

[ThomasTECH]

I mean, I went to the moon yesterday and nobody cared, if these guys did then I definitely did too! How could you take a picture on the moon? The the radiant glow so intense you likely can't see no photo option for sure. You would need to do it in the moon's night but it would be so dark the amount of light you would need wouldn't be easily available. This is your standard everyday BS job trying to do it fake so it never has to be attempted for real. Once it is for real attempted, there will some major reporting and failures to report.

 

[Vanderlinde]

Can't we all just respect the efforts of a private company who actually sends a probe up there ?

 

[Crabjuice]

/s = sarcasm

Uh yeah. If you look at the quote in my post, you can see I wasn’t replying to you. I was replying to eddo22. Unless the sarcasm tag is buried somewhere in the Bible verses and I missed it.

 

[Crabjuice]

The only way to 'prove' the landing is legit is to take a decent photo of the stars. The original moon mission failed to take even one photo of the stars. The usual excuse is that the light of the sun effectively blotted out the stars. That is true if you have an atmosphere that refracts the light. But there is no atmosphere in space. Simply aiming the camera away from the sun or adding a long sunshade should have been enough to eliminate the sun as a concern.

Oh good grief. It has nothing to do with the atmosphere refracting light. The stars are blotted out for the same reason we can't see stars during the day on earth. The sun is so strong (especially without an atmosphere!) compared to the other much dimmer stars. That is the short explanation. Better explanations exist. Regardless, you can't fake telemetry. That is, you can't fake the signals coming from the moon.

IMHO, the original mission was obviously fake. They went all that way and didn't even get a good shot of the stars. It's beyond pathetic.

What is pathetic is that you think the original mission was obviously fake. It wasn't.

 

[scavengerspc]

What is pathetic is that you think the original mission was obviously fake. It wasn't.

What gets me about these people is how they ignore the lack of any provable leak, saying it was faked. It can be tough to get 10 humans to keep a big secret, yet 400,000 people on the project have denied fakery.

Apollo 11 moon landing had thousands working behind scenes

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — It took 400,000 people to put Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon a half-century ago.

apnews.com

 

[loki1944]

Unmanned? Yawn.

 

[Crabjuice]

What gets me about these people is how they ignore the lack of any provable leak, saying it was faked. It can be tough to get 10 humans to keep a big secret, yet 400,000 people on the project have denied fakery.

That doesn't even include Soviet Russia that had every reason to expose a U.S. fraud. And every HAM radio operator that was also listening to the transmissions and could tell where the signals were originating from.

 

[dirtyferret]

That doesn't even include Soviet Russia that had every reason to expose a U.S. fraud. And every HAM radio operator that was also listening to the transmissions and could tell where the signals were originating from.

everyone knows the moon landings were faked in Hollywood, but Bill Gates implanting microchips in our brains using Jewish space lasers so that we willing take the coronavirus vaccine is real. Luckily now that RFK jr removed his brain worm he can help protect us.