On Monday (Jan. 27), Texas-based Firefly released two photos of the moon that Blue Ghost captured from Earth orbit. One shows the natural satellite all alone, a small grayish dot in an empty black sea; the other is a selfie, showing the moon glowing above some of Blue Ghost's golden hardware.

Launching at 1:11 a.m. EST on Jan. 15, a SpaceX rocket carried the lunar lander built by Cedar Park-based Firefly Aerospace Inc. into space. Its eventual destination: the moon. The 45-day journey from the Earth to the Moon carries with it multiple scientific instruments as part of NASA ’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative.

Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 has taken a significant leap toward the Moon, with its successful second engine burn positioning the spacecraft for lunar orbit. NASA’s science and technology instruments aboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 are making steady progress toward the Moon.