Blue Ghost Lander Takes Breathtaking Sunset Photos on the Moon Before Going Silent

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—A private lunar lander has successfully captured the first-ever high-definition sunset images from the moon.

On Tuesday, Firefly Aerospace and NASA unveiled breathtaking photos taken prior to the Blue Ghost lander’s silence over the past weekend. One of the images even features Venus in the background.

Firefly’s Blue Ghost made its historic landing on the lunar surface on March 2, marking it as the first private spacecraft to land upright and complete its full mission. It continued to take photographs and gather scientific data for five hours into the lunar night before it ceased operation due to a lack of solar power.

According to NASA’s Joel Kearns, the series of sunset images captured by Blue Ghost represents the first high-resolution visuals from our closest celestial neighbor. He emphasized that scientists will need to conduct meticulous analyses of these images before concluding anything about the horizon glow depicted in at least one of the photos, particularly regarding the possibility of levitating dust—a theory proposed over fifty years ago by Gene Cernan, the last astronaut to walk on the moon during Apollo 17.

“What we have is a truly beautiful and aesthetically pleasing image showcasing some distinctly unusual features,” Kearns mentioned during a news briefing.

The Blue Ghost carried 10 experiments developed for NASA as part of the agency’s commercial lunar delivery initiative. While all goals were accomplished, officials noted that the on-board drill only managed to penetrate 3 feet into the lunar surface instead of the originally planned 10 feet.

Firefly has indicated plans to attempt to revive the lunar lander in early April after the two-week freeze of the bitterly cold lunar night, although engineers remain skeptical that it will be operational again.

By Marcia Dunn