Blue Ghost Mission 1 landing on the lunar surface (artist’s impression).
What does a total lunar eclipse look like from the moon? A NASA-backed spacecraft may be about to find out if it is successful in landing on the moon in March 2025.
While there, the Blue Ghost lander — which will launch this week from Florida — will also investigate a mysterious glow seen on the moon by Apollo astronauts but never fully explained.
Blue Ghost: Total Solar Eclipse (from Earth)
During a lunar eclipse – which will occur on March 13/14, 2025 – the Earth is right between the sun and the full moon. The Earth casts its shadow on the lunar surface, and the only sunlight that reaches the lunar surface is filtered by the Earth’s atmosphere, so it appears reddish like a sunset. From the Moon, a total lunar eclipse should look like a total solar eclipse from Earth.
On the night side of the moon, facing Earth during a full moon, a 360-degree camera on Blue Ghost on the lunar surface will be used to image a halo of light around Earth.
“On Earth, we would watch a lunar eclipse where the moon casts a shadow, and on the moon, we would watch a solar eclipse where the Earth blocks the sun,” a spokesperson for Firefly Aerospace said in an email. . “That’s what we aim to capture with Firefly’s Blue Ghost Lander.”
Blue Ghost: Launch and Mission Timeline
This lunar lander is not from NASA, but from an American commercial company called Firefly Aerospace. Its Ghostrider In The Sky mission will see the Blue Ghost lunar lander lift off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:11 a.m. EST on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, into Earth orbit for 25 days, then travel to about 45 days in lunar orbit before attempting a landing during Mars. It will land near Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium to the northeast of the moon’s near side.
Blue Ghost: West of the Moon
“We will complete the mission by capturing a solar eclipse [by the Earth] and a lunar eclipse in high-definition video before operating several hours into the lunar night,” Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace, said during a Dec. 17, 2025, NASA teleconference.
This will be Firefly Aerospace’s first mission to the Moon, although it will only be able to conduct science for one lunar day – the equivalent of 14 Earth days. It is designed to have a battery large enough to enable it to image the sunset from the moon before a dark and cold fortnight begins.
Blue Ghost’s Moonshine Plans
Blue Ghost plans to capture a second lunar phenomenon on video – the glow of the lunar horizon. “We expect to capture a phenomenon first seen and documented by Eugene Cernan during his final steps on Apollo 17, where he observed a horizon glow as lunar dust rose to the surface,” Kim said. Apollo 17 in 1972 was the last crewed mission to the Moon. Mission commander Eugene Cernan – the last man on the moon – noticed a strange crescent-shaped glow on the moon’s horizon. It is thought to be caused by dust in the moon’s thin atmosphere that only becomes visible during sunset, but it is not known exactly why. “Knowing that Firefly’s Blue Ghost mission is a culmination of what was observed by the last Apollo astronaut to walk on the moon is a fitting tribute to their legacy,” Kim said.
Blue Ghost: Involvement of NASA
There is a lot of other NASA science flying on Blue Ghost Mission 1. Part of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and the Artemis campaign, projects include lunar GPS, studying lunar dust samples, and testing lunar computers. protected from radiation.
Earlier this month, NASA announced that its next crewed mission to the Moon — the first since Apollo 17 — was being rescheduled for April 2026. This Artemis II mission is part of NASA’s effort to return humans to moon. Artemis II will carry four astronauts on a lunar flight without landing. The subsequent Artemis III mission, intended to achieve a manned lunar landing, was pushed back to mid-2027.
Blue Ghost Mission 1: Fully Assembled Lunar Lander.
Blue Ghost Mission 1 on the lunar surface (artist’s impression).
