In the shadow of the Starship, this SpaceX mission aims for the Moon!

© Firefly

The big mission of the week was undoubtedly the 7th flight of the Starship, but a few days ago, another rocket left Earth, heading for our satellite: the Moon. The launch took place from the Kennedy Space Center launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Under the fairing of this SpaceX Falcon 9, two lunar landers.

The first, created by the teams of the Japanese start-up ispace was a replica of an old model, which crashed on the Moon in April 2023. With this new launch, the company wants to go further, and bring a private lander to the surface of our satellite.

A goal shared by the company Firefly Aerospace, based in Texas and a neighbor of SpaceX. With its Blue Ghost Mission 1 lander, it must conduct various experiments on behalf of NASA. The two probes must land next March on the surface of our satellite.

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Two private, but scientific missions

The two devices must collect lunar dust to analyze it. The goal is in particular to find sources of water and food on the Moon. In a message posted on social networks, the ispace teams confirmed radio contact with the lander. They hope to reach the Mare Frigoris at the far north of the Moon in the spring.

Firefly Aerospace, a Texas startup, has been awarded $145 million by NASA to conduct several scientific missions there. Jason Kim, one of the mission leaders, explained that the rover should operate for an entire lunar day (about 2 weeks).

Just before nightfall, it should capture a high-resolution image of the sunset from the Moon. This image, in addition to being beautiful, should provide information on how the lunar regolith (the rock on the surface) reacts to solar radiation.

Setting the Stage for NASA

On the American space agency side, these two missions are highly anticipated. They are part of the CLPS program, a set of private missions with a budget of 2.4 billion dollars. They must all collect information on the functioning of the Moon.

This data will allow better preparation of the Artemis missions, which must mark the return of Man to the Moon. Artemis 3, scheduled for 2026, should mark the first step of a woman and a person of color on the lunar surface, 50 years after the last Apollo missions.

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