"Blue Ghost successfully performed a Trans Lunar Injection burn to escape Earth's gravitational pull and begin a 4-day transit to the moon's orbit," Firefly stated on social media platform X on Saturday (Feb. 8).
The lander launched on the "Ghost Riders in the Sky" mission on Jan. 15 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket along with the Japanese space exploration firm ispace's Resilience moon lander. Both spacecraft had since been orbiting Earth, preparing for transit to the moon.Blue Ghost later performed a trajectory-correction maneuver on Feb. 9 to refine the spacecraft's path and keep it on course for entering lunar orbit.
Blue Ghost will enter a high lunar orbit in the next few days and then begin lowering its orbit to get ready for a landing attempt
The lander is targeting a landing within Mare Crisium ("Sea of Crises"), a large basin on the moon's near side.
Source: www.space.com
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