Private Lander Carrying NASA Experiments Lands on the Moon

01A private spacecraft carrying several science experiments has successfully landed on the moon.

02The lander, called Blue Ghost, was built by the American company Firefly Aerospace.

03The spacecraft touched down March 2nd on the part of the moon's nearside called Merchrysium.

04The nearside of the moon is the side facing Earth.

05Officials at Firefly's Mission Control Center near Austin, Texas, confirmed the successful landing.

06The chief engineer for the Blue Ghost mission, Will Coogan, announced to excited workers, We're on the moon.

07The officials said the spacecraft landed in the right position and was operating normally.

08The successful touchdown makes Firefly the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or having a major problem.

09Only five countries can claim successful moon landings.

10Russia, the United States, China, India, and Japan.

11Blue Ghost is named after a rare kind of firefly found in the U.S.

12The four-legged lander is 2 meters tall and 3.5 meters wide.

13It launched in mid-January from Florida carrying 10 experiments for the American Space Agency, NASA.

14In a statement, NASA said the 10 experiments are designed to operate on the surface of the moon for one lunar day, which is about 14 Earth days.

15The Associated Press reported that NASA paid $101 million for the spacecraft and $44 million for the equipment it carried.

16It was the third mission under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services, CLPS, program.

17The program aims to turn over the country's major space missions to private companies to reduce costs.

18Several other companies are part of the program.

19Another lander, called Athena, is set to attempt a moon landing on March 6.

20That 4-meter-tall spacecraft was built and operated by Houston-based, intuitive machines.

21It will land on another part of the moon, about 160 kilometers from the lunar south pole.

22A third lander from private Japanese company iSpace will attempt a moon landing in about three months.

23The lander, called Resilience, shared its rocket ride with Blue Ghost.

24But it took a longer path to the moon.

25The company is also attempting to land on the moon for the second time.

26Its first lander crashed in 2023.

27NASA has said it aims to have two private landers launch to the moon each year, realizing some missions will fail.

28The space agency's top science officer is Nikki Foxx.

29She told the AP the latest launches open up a whole new way for us to get more science to space and to the moon.

30In the past, NASA's successful moon landings involving astronauts cost billions of dollars.

31But Firefly Chief Jason Kim said the private companies now building and launching spacecraft have a limited budget and the spacecraft operate robotically.

32Kim said everything went just as planned with Blue Ghost's landing.

33We got some moon dust on our boots, he added.

34I'm Brian Lynn.