Spacecraft swoops around moon to prepare for landing, snaps footage

The Blue Ghost spacecraft is on track for the big show.

The 6.6-foot-tall lander will attempt to touch down in Mare Crisium, a lava-covered basin on the moon's near side, on March 2. Mission controllers at Texas-based Firefly Aerospace have successfully fired thrusters to enter a lower orbit around the moon, in preparation for the much-anticipated landing event. The company released footage Blue Ghost captured during one of these recent orbital maneuvers.

What's more, you can catch two glimpses of shadowed Earth at the beginning and end of the time-lapse video.

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SEE ALSO: Why landing a spaceship on the moon is still so challenging

"Earth rise, Earth set, repeat! Blue Ghost's third and final lunar orbit maneuver is complete!" Firefly Aerospace posted on X. "Early this morning, our #GhostRiders performed a 16-second burn with our RCS thrusters to enter a near-circular low lunar orbit. Up next, we'll perform a 19-second Descent Orbit Insertion at our 100-km perilune to begin our descent to Blue Ghost's final destination, Mare Crisium, on March 2."

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The mission, funded by NASA as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, is carrying a suite of instruments and experiments for the space agency as NASA prepares to establish a permanent presence on the moon. This includes radiation-tolerant computing tests and sampling of the lunar regolith.

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But landing on the moon, a world with virtually no atmosphere to slow spacecraft down, remains daunting. Although Chinese and Indian craft have had recent landing successes, the U.S. commercial spacecraft Odysseus sustained damage while landing awkwardly in 2024. The same year, a Japanese craft landed upside down, on its head.

In the coming years, NASA intends to land astronauts on the moon, too. The agency currently expects to bring astronauts to the moon in mid-2027, wherein they'll spend a week exploring the dark, shadowy craters of the moon's south pole. It's home to a vitally important resource: lunar water.