Firefly Aerospace is making strides with its latest lunar lander, Blue Ghost, which is inching closer to its lunar destination. On February 18, early in the morning, the lander successfully ignited its engines, signaling a crucial milestone in its 45-day journey to the Moon.

The engine burn began at 3:09 a.m. ET and lasted for three minutes and 18 seconds, transitioning the lander from a high elliptical orbit—where it had been since February 13—to a lower orbit. At its new altitude of 75 miles (120 kilometers) above the Moon’s surface, Blue Ghost captured stunning images of the far side of the Moon and transmitted them back to Earth.

Our #GhostRiders executed another lunar orbit adjustment with a successful 3:18 engine burn early this morning. This move shifted the lander to a significantly lower elliptical orbit around the Moon. Shortly thereafter, Blue Ghost captured amazing footage… pic.twitter.com/ygyMVpaBW4

— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) February 18, 2025

While this maneuver is essential for preparing Blue Ghost for its anticipated landing on March 2, it does create some temporary communication interruptions between the lander and its team at Firefly Aerospace in Texas.

This 45-day timeline from launch to landing will also provide an opportunity for the team to calibrate the onboard instruments. If the mission proceeds as planned, Blue Ghost will land in the Mare Crisium, a basin formed by a historic asteroid impact and previously filled with basalt lava. The lander is equipped with 10 instruments designed to analyze the heat flow from the Moon’s interior, assess the magnetic and electric fields at its surface, and investigate the chemical makeup of the lunar soil. Moreover, this mission aims to test technologies vital for NASA’s Artemis missions, which seek to return humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972.

Blue Ghost has taken a rather unconventional path in its journey to the Moon. Instead of a direct route from Kennedy Space Center, the lander spent several weeks orbiting Earth after its launch on January 15. During this time, its cameras provided some breathtaking views of our planet, even capturing a few selfies.

Though Blue Ghost represents the forefront of private lunar landing attempts, past missions have met with mixed success. In April 2023, Japan’s ispace company faced disappointment when its Hakuto-R M1 lander crashed while attempting to make a soft landing.

Similarly, Astrobotic’s Peregrine, the first private American lunar landing effort, encountered problems with a catastrophic failure shortly after its launch in January 2024. However, just weeks after that, the Odysseus lander from Intuitive Machines succeeded in landing, despite having a broken leg that left it tipped over.

If Blue Ghost successfully touches down, it will soon be joined by another lander. ispace is preparing for its Resilience mission, which was launched on the same Falcon 9 rocket as Blue Ghost, with a planned landing for May or June. This lander will carry the Tenacious rover, tasked with analyzing the lunar soil surrounding the northern region where it is set to land.

If you’re eager for more lunar exploration, Intuitive Machines has another mission slated for launch as early as next week. This upcoming mission includes a robot designed to hop across the lunar surface to explore craters that remain in perpetual shadow.