The IM-2 lander is beginning its vertical descent where the lander’s Guidance and Navigation Control system flies the lander to a point approximately 98 feet (30 meters) above the designated landing site. Then the lander goes into a vertical descent at about 10 feet-per-second (3-meters-per-second). After that, the lander brakes to a 3-feet-per-second (1-meter-per-second) descent rate...
The final burn of Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 lunar lander has begun. Powered descent initiation is a main engine firing that will take about 12 minutes. It’s designed to slow the lander’s speed in preparation for final descent moments before touchdown. During this phase, the lander must slow down by about 4,000 miles per hour...
After launching Feb. 26 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Intuitive Machines’ lander is preparing to land on the Moon at 11:30 a.m. CST at Mons Mouton near the Moon’s South Pole. Watch now on NASA+ or the agency’s website. Aboard the mission are a suite of NASA technology and science payloads on their way...
After successfully completing descent orbit insertion at 4:33 a.m. CST Thursday, Intuitive Machines flight controllers are gathering data and checking the lander’s landing systems for accuracy ahead of landing on the lunar surface for its IM-2 mission. The updated landing time is 11:30 a.m. CST. As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative...
On March 3, Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission successfully entered into lunar orbit carrying the next suite of NASA instruments and technology demonstrations one step closer to the Moon. The lander aims to complete 39 lunar orbits before beginning descent to the landing site at Mons Mouton near the Moon’s South Pole region. NASA’s PRIME-1 suite...
Shortly after landing on the Moon March 2, Firefly Aerospace and NASA teams kicked off surface operations for the science and technology instruments on the company’s Blue Ghost lunar lander. Firefly also captured the lunar sunrise and a video during descent and landing. All NASA instruments onboard continue to be healthy and several payloads have...
Carrying a suite of NASA science and technology payloads to the Moon, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down on the lunar surface at 3:34 a.m. EST on Sunday. Throughout Blue Ghost’s mission, the agency’s scientific instruments aim to test and demonstrate lunar subsurface drilling technology, regolith sample collection capabilities, global navigation satellite system...
Powered Descent Initiation has begun. During this 9-minute braking burn, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander is fully autonomous, using D’Souza Guidance — a model similar to the guidance used during the Apollo Moon missions — to position itself above the target landing site and pitch over from a horizontal to a vertical orientation. This critical...
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost is now on its way down to the surface of the Moon. The lander successfully performed a descent orbit insertion burn, which initiates the descent sequence and places the vehicle on the trajectory to its landing site on the Moon’s Mare Crisium. Following this burn, Blue Ghost began a 50-min coast...
After launching Jan. 15 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander is preparing to land on the Moon at 3:34 a.m. EST near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, a more than 300-mile-wide basin located in the northeast quadrant of the Moon’s near side. Watch now on...
