The second-ever landing on the Moon by a commercial craft was achieved this weekend by US firm Firefly Aerospace.

The Blue Ghost lunar lander, which was carrying a number of payloads from Nasa, softly touched down on the Moon’s surface on Sunday morning UK time in an upright position on the company’s first attempt. 

Carrying 10 Nasa instruments, the precision landing saw Blue Ghost touch down within its 100-metre landing target next to Mons Latreille, a volcanic feature. The craft’s shock-absorbing legs stabilised the lander as it touched down, and it is now communicating with Firefly’s mission operations centre in Texas.

Intuitive Machines landed the first privately built craft on the Moon last year, the first time such a feat was achieved by the US in over 50 years. However, the Odysseus lander fell on its side as it touched down, leaving its instruments only partially functional and with a reduced downlink capacity.

Over the next two weeks, Blue Ghost will carry out a number of surface operations to support Nasa’s science goals, including subsurface drilling, sample collection, X-ray imaging and dust mitigation experiments. 

On 14 March, Firefly expects to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse when the Earth blocks the Sun above the Moon’s horizon. Two days later it will capture the lunar sunset, providing data on how lunar dust levitates because of solar influences.

“Firefly is literally and figuratively over the Moon,” said Firefly CEO Jason Kim. “Our Blue Ghost lunar lander now has a permanent home on the lunar surface with 10 Nasa payloads and a plaque with every Firefly employee’s name. 

“This bold, unstoppable team has proven we’re well equipped to deliver reliable, affordable access to the Moon, and we won’t stop there. With annual lunar missions, Firefly is paving the way for a lasting lunar presence that will help unlock access to the rest of the Solar System for our nation, our partners, and the world.”

Throughout its 45-day journey to the Moon, Blue Ghost travelled more than 2.8 million miles, downlinked more than 27GB of data, and supported several payload science operations, including signal tracking from the Global Navigation Satellite System at a record-breaking distance, alongside measurements of magnetic field changes.