News Planetary Science

A private moon lander challenges ideas about lunar volcanism

Blue Ghost’s first measurements test a long-running explanation for the man in the moon

A long spacecraft shadow falls across the moon’s surface beneath a black sky.

Blue Ghost’s shadow stretches across the moon’s surface after the Firefly Aerospace lander touched down there in March 2025. Its first science measurements revive a lunar mystery.

NASA, Firefly Aerospace

By Lisa Grossman

The first measurements from a private spacecraft on the moon may reopen an old debate about why the moon’s Earth-facing side looks the way it does.