Washington: A US space company has landed a lunar vehicle on the Moon, becoming the second private organization to do so. A live stream showed the Blue Ghost lander, built by Firefly Aerospace, touching down on the Moon today.

According to Oman News Agency, the vehicle was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida in January on a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX. It touched down in the Mare Crisium, a lowland plain with a diameter of some 500 kilometers.

Blue Ghost, which is around 2 meters high and 3 meters wide, is set to spend two weeks conducting experiments using several scientific instruments. The lander is set to drill into the Moon’s surface to take samples, and it will also take photos of the Sun setting at its landing site.

The mission will then provide data on how the Moon’s loose rock reacts to the influence of the Sun at dusk. The first commercial landing on the Moon came in February 2024, with the Nova-C lander by US company Intuitive Machines.

Both Nova-C and Blue Ghost are part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme. The US space agency is aiming to gather knowledge ahead of its own planned return to the Moon, more than 50 years after its last manned mission – Apollo 17 – landed in December 1972.