‘Fly me to the Moon, and Let me Play Among the Stars…’
While Planet Earth is teeming with geopolitical activity, three different groups of men and women are engaged in an Odyssey that is to take their spacecrafts to the surface of the Moon.
It’s definitely a big moment in the human race’s spaceflight saga.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was launched on Thursday (Feb. 27), carrying Intuitive Machines’ ‘Athena’ spacecraft, so now there are three different private lunar landers currently on their way to the moon.
It’s an unprecedented surge in exploration, with the three missions operated by private companies.
Space reported:
“’Athena joining a historic wave of lunar landers on their way to the moon is an extraordinary moment’, Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said in a statement this morning (Feb. 28).
‘While the most vital part of this mission lies ahead, we believe this is a signal that lunar services are rapidly advancing alongside civil and commercial intent to establish a foothold on the moon to reach further into the solar system’, he added.”
Intuitive Machines has released the first images of Earth taken by the Athena probe!
The photos capture the spacecraft against our planet, marking a successful start to the mission.
A new step in space exploration! #Athena #Space #NASA pic.twitter.com/XD4Yw3p6fY— Jacob Martinez (@CristobaSb) February 28, 2025
There are other two private landers heading for the moon’s surface — Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost and Japan’s Resilience, built by ispace. They were both launched atop the same SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 15.
“Blue Ghost, like Athena, is flying under the flag of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which puts agency science gear on private robotic landers. The goal is to gather data that will help pave the way for NASA’s Artemis astronauts, who are scheduled to touch down near the moon’s south pole a few years from now and then establish one or more bases in the water-rich region over the ensuing years.
Blue Ghost and its 10 NASA payloads have been circling the moon for two weeks and are scheduled to land in the Mare Crisium (“Sea of Crises”) region of the lunar near side early Sunday morning (March 2).”
Japanese Resilience is taking a circuitous route and is only expected to reach lunar orbit in late May or early June.
“To date, just one private spacecraft has ever landed successfully on the moon — Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus, which did so in February 2024. Others have come close; for example, ispace’s first lander reached lunar orbit in March 2023 but crashed during its touchdown attempt a month later. (Resilience is the Japanese company’s second moon lander.)”
The Moon is so close, we can taste it!
New footage from @Firefly_Space shows their lunar lander’s view from 60 miles (100 km) above the Moon. Blue Ghost will land at Mare Crisium, on the near side of the Moon, on March 2, no earlier than 3:34am ET (0834 UTC). pic.twitter.com/EBZyXHEerL
— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) February 26, 2025
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The post MOON FEVER – Three Private Landers Are Headed to the Lunar Surface, With the First, Blue Ghost, Set To Touch Down Early Sunday appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.