Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 is set to land on the Moon in less than a week with touchdown expected on Sunday March 2 after its launch on Jan 15. In preparation for descent, the spacecraft will execute its final lunar orbit maneuver on Monday, Feb 24, inserting it into a near-circular low orbit that brings it closer to the lunar surface. Approximately one hour before landing, a Descent Orbit Insertion burn will commence, initiating its guided approach toward its designated site at Mare Crisium on the Moon's near side.

Live coverage of the landing will be jointly presented by NASA and Firefly on NASA+ beginning at 2:30 a.m. EST, roughly 75 minutes before touchdown. The event will also be streamed live on Firefly's YouTube channel along with timely blog updates and social media posts to mark each descent milestone.

All ten NASA instruments onboard are in excellent condition and ready for lunar operations. During transit, the active payloads collected significant data. The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) successfully tracked Global Navigation Satellite System signals in lunar orbit for the first time, achieving a record at 246,000 miles. This breakthrough suggests that combined GNSS constellations such as GPS and Galileo can be used for navigation around and on the Moon.

After landing, LuGRE will operate for 14 days and attempt to set another record with the first reception of GNSS signals on the lunar surface. Meanwhile, the Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) activated shortly after launch on Jan 15 and has logged over 50 hours of daily checkouts and commissioning in preparation for capturing images from the lunar surface.

Related Links
Blue Ghost Mission 1
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more