After Launch by SpaceX in January, Firefly Aerospace's Lunar Lander Reaches Moon Orbit

'A robotic lander from Texas-based Firefly Aerospace is now in orbit around the Moon,' reports Spaceflight Now, 'and going through its final preparations to land in the coming weeks.'

Its arrival comes nearly a month after the spacecraft launched onboard a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. This is the third mission launched as part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, an initiative designed to bring science and technology demonstrations to the Moon at a cheaper cost...

Manifested on this lander are 10 NASA payloads, which cover a range of objectives. Those include the Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) instrument, which will drill between 2- to 3-meters into the Moon's surface to study the heat flow; and the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS) 1.1 instrument, which will use a series of cameras to capture the plume generated at landing to help create a three-dimensional model... 'We saw that for the type of advanced scientific or engineering measurements we wanted to make, the instruments were small enough and compact enough that we could actually fly 10,' [said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for Exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate], 'if someone could actually schedule them to get all of their operations done over the 14 Earth day lunar daytime.'

Firefly Aerospace ended up winning that bid and carries with it the most NASA instruments manifested on a single Commercial Lunar Payload Services lander so far.
Friday on X.com Firefly Aerospace wished a happy Valentine's Day to 'all those on Earth who dare to Dream Big.'
'Blue Ghost has been capturing stunning imagery of our planet throughout its journey,' Spaceflight Now says in a 12-minute video.
And Friday on X.com Firefly posted Blue Ghost's first spectacular shots of the moon as it approaches — along with its special message for Valentine's Day. 'I love you to the Moon, but not back — I'm staying there.'

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