FireFly Aerospace's Blue Ghost has landed on the moon!

Blue Ghost Mission 1, launched January 15, 2025, landed on the moon this morning.  The robotic mission is the first commercial company, FireFly Aerospace, to successfully land on the moon.

The spacecraft landed at Mare Crisium and will study the moon's regolith, the loose, fragmented rock, and soil.  The Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) will determine how lunar regolith sticks to a range of materials exposed to the moon's environment during landing and lander operations.

The Next Generation Lunar Retroflectors (NGLR) will measure the distance between Earth and the moon precisely, using reflectors on Earth.

The Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) will take images of the interaction of Earth's magnetosphere with the flow of charged particles from the sun.

The Reconfigurable, Radiation Tolerant Computer System (RadPC) will demonstrate a radiation-tolerant computing technology. 

These are among the instrumentation Blue Ghost will employ while it studies the lunar surface. 

Luna 16, first lunar sample return mission, lands 1970

Luna 16, the first successful lunar sample return mission, landed on Earth September 24, 1970. The main spacecraft was launched September 12 and landed on the dark side of the moon. Within an hour of landing, Luna 16 deployed an automatic drill.  It reached a depth of 35 cm and withdrew about 101 grams sample of lunar soil. The upper stage lifted off from the moon on September 21 and parachuted down, successfully landing in Kazakhstan September 24, 1970.

Hayabusa returns from asteroid Itokawa 2010

Hayabusa (not to be confused with Hayabusa 2) returned to Earth after visiting the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa, June 13, 2010.  Launched in 2003, it was the first spacecraft designed to land on an asteroid and then take off again.  

Scientists at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) studied particles taken from Itokawa, most of which were about 10 micrometers in size.  They determined that the grains were extraterrestrial in origin, meaning they resembled meteorites and asteroids, rather than known rocks from Earth. 

The crew of Shenzhou 17 landed today!

Shenzhou 17 crew (L-R): Jiang Xinlin, Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie

Members of the Shenzhou 17, the sixth mission to the Tiangong space station, landed safely today in Inner Mongolia, China.  The crew consisted of Commander Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie, and Jiang Xinlin. It was Tang Hongbo's second mission and the first person to visit the space station twice.  The spaceflight launched October 26, 2023.

Tang Shengjie is the youngest taikonaut to perform a spacewalk at 34. The crew performed 2 EVAs for a total of 15 hours and 17 minutes.  

Odysseus spacecraft returns to the moon, first US lunar landing in over 50 years

Intuitive Machine's uncrewed spacecraft Odysseus landed successfully on the moon yesterday, February 22, 2024.  It is the first time a spacecraft from the US has landed on the moon since 1972, the last Apollo mission.  NASA payed Intuitive Machines, a private company,  $118M to deliver 6 instruments to the moon.  

Odysseus landed near the moon's south pole, where ice and water are present.

Day 9: Challenger (STS-41-G) crew lands 1984

STS-41-G crew 

Front Row (L-R): Jon McBride, Sally Ride, Kathryn Sullivan, David Leestma

Back Row (L-R): Paul Scully-Power, Robert Crippen, Marc Garneau

On October 13, 1984, the Challenger (STS-41-G) crew woke up to OU's fight song Boomer Sooner and Rocket Man by Elton John.  I haven't figured out the connection between OU and the mission.  Rocket Man seems appropriate though.

They prepared for re-entry by closing the payload bay doors and fired the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines over Australia.  Due to the shuttle's 57-degree inclination, their re-entry took them over the eastern United States, which was one of many firsts experienced during the mission.

Challenger touched down at 12:25pm at Kennedy Space Center.  They spent 8 days, 5 hours and 23 minutes in space, traveling almost 3.3M miles and completing 133 orbits.  

It was the first shuttle to: 

• carry a crew of seven
• carry two women into space
• involve a woman in an EVA (Sullivan)
• carry a Canadian into space (Garneau)
• carry an Australian-born person into space (Scully-Power)
• carry an astronaut with a beard into space (Scully-Power)
• fly over the eastern US during re-entry

The crew consisted of Commander Robert Crippen, pilot Jon McBride, Kathryn Sullivan, Sally Ride, David Leestma, Paul Scully-Power, and Marc Garneau.

Commander Robert Crippen became the first American to complete two space missions in the same calendar year.

Footage of the mission appeared in The Dream is Alive, an IMAX documentary film about NASA's Space Shuttle program.  

Record-breaking Soyuz MS-23 missions returns to Earth

Soyuz MS-22 crew (Top-Bottom): Dimitry Petelin, Frank Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev

Soyuz MS-23, which launched back in February 2023, returned to Earth safely yesterday with the crew of Soyuz MS-22, which launched September 21, 2022. The crew consisted of Sergey Prokopyev (Commander), Dimitry Petelin, and Francisco Rubio (NASA).  

While aboard the International Space Station, they participated in Expeditions 67-69. 

Rubio has spent more than 370 days in space, making him the first American to spend more than a full year in space, breaking Mark Vande Hei's record.

OSIRIS-REx returns to Earth with samples from asteroid Bennu

NASA's first asteroid retrieval mission has been successfully completed with the sample return capsule from OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security - Regolith Explorer), which landed in the Utah desert near Salt Lake City yesterday.

The craft returned about 250 g of asteroid material, collected from asteroid Bennu in October 2020.  The capsule and its contents have been secured in a cleanroom facility, awaiting analysis.  Although a small amount, it will provide material for years of research to come.

After releasing its sample capsule, OSIRIS-REx became OSIRIS-APEX (APophis Explorer) and will go on a mission to observe 99942 Apophis, a near-Earth asteroid and potentially dangerous object in April 2029, when the asteroid makes a very close pass to Earth on the 13th.

India's Chandrayaan-3 lands on the moon!

Just a few hours ago, India's Chandrayaan-3 landed on the moon near the south pole. It is the third lunar exploration untaken by the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) Chandrayaan program.  India is the first nation to successfully land a spacecraft near the south pole.

It contains a rover which will explore the lunar surface. 

Hayabusa 2 capsule returns to Earth 2020

The surface of Ryugu

Hayabusa 2, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) probe launched in 2014, returned to Earth with samples from near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu December 5, 2020.  After its sampling mission was completed in November 2019, Hayabusa 2 fired its ion engines and returned to Earth.

It released the sample capsule on December 5, 2020 and the capsule landed at the Woomera Test Range in Australia.  JAXA has shared a portion of the samples with NASA and NASA will share samples from asteroid Bennu, when OSIRIS-REx returns in 2023.

Hayabusa lands on the asteroid Itokawa

Hayabusa, the Japanese spacecraft launched in May 2003, landed on the asteroid Itokawa November 19, 2005.  It had arrived at the asteroid just two months before.  Just as it landed, Hayabusa fired tiny projectiles at the surface and collected the spray.  Small specks were collected to be sent back to Earth for analysis. 

Hayabusa returned to Earth June 13, 2010 in Australia.  

Philae lands on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Geraskimenko 2014

Philae, the European Space Agency lander launched with the Rosetta spacecraft, landed on Comet 67/Churyumov-Geraskimenko November 12, 2014.  Unfortunately, the landing did not go as planned. The lander bounced upon landing and ended up on its side.  Much of its scientific equipment was rendered unusable, but scientists have been able to use the crash to their advantage.  The site of Philae had limited sunlight so its solar batteries could not be charged sufficiently.  Contact was lost on November 15.

On June 13, 2015, ground controllers received an 85-second transmission from Philae, forwarded by Rosetta which indicated the lander was in good health.  Its batteries had charged sufficiently to come out of safe mode.  The final communication came on July 9.  Afterwards mission controllers were not able to contact Philae with new investigations.  By January 2016, controllers determined that no further communications were likely.  

In September 2016, cameras on Rosetta located Philae on the surface of the comet.

Zhurong, the Tianwen-1 rover lands on Mars!

The China National Space Administration successfully landed its Tianwen-1 spacecraft on Mars, May 14, 2021.  It is the first attempt by the CNSA and China becomes the second nation after the US to put a craft on Mars.  It touched down in the Utopia Planitia

Soon the rover Zhurong, named after the god of fire from Chinese folklore, will being its exploration of the Red Planet.

Soyuz MS-15 lands safely today!

Soyuz MS-15 landing crew (L-R): Oleg Skripochka, Jessica Meir, Andrew Morgan

Soyuz MS-15, with members of Expedition 62, landed safely in Kazakhstan this morning.  Its crew consisted of Commander Oleg Skripochka and Jessica Meir who launched in September 2019.  They spent about 205 days in space.  Hazz Al Mansouri was aboard for the launch but returned on Soyuz MS-12 October 3.

Andrew Morgan went into space aboard Soyuz MS-13 in July 2019.  He spent about 277 days in space.

Welcome home, Expedition 61!

Expedition 61 crew (L-R): Andrew Morgan, Aleksandr Skvortsov, Luca Parmitano, Oleg Skripochka, Jessica Meir and Christina Koch

Mission patch

The members of Expedition 61 - Commander Luca Parmitano, Christina Koch and Aleksandr Skvortsov - returned to Earth from the International Space Station this morning aboard I.  Koch went into space way back in March 2019 aboard Soyuz MS-12.  She has set the world record for longest stay in space by a woman at 328 days.  She has the second-longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut and 7th on the list of cumulative time in space for American astronauts.

Skvortsov and Parmitano arrived at the ISS in July 2019 with Andrew Morgan aboard Soyuz MS-13 and have completed a 201-day stay in space.  With this mission, Parmitano has logged 367 days in space, longer than any other ESA astronaut.

Skvortsov has completed his third mission and has logged 546 days in space, putting him 15th on the list of all-time spaceflight endurance tests.

 Koch performed 6 EVAs during her stay and Parmitano conducted 4.

Oleg Skripochka, Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan remain onboard the ISS and have transferred over to Expedition 62.

Stardust Sample Return Capsule lands 2006

The Sample Return Capsule from the Stardust space probe on January 15, 2006 and landed safely in Utah.  Stardust had made a flyby of the comet Wild 2 and taken samples of dust from the coma of the comet.

Among the many compounds discovered was glycine, an amino acid that scientists identify as a fundamental chemical building blocks of life.  Scientists at the University of Arizona confirmed the presence of liquid water in Wild 2.