Blue Ghost touches down on Moon

An Earth selfie taken by the Blue Ghost lander. Pics/AFP

A private lunar lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA touched down on the Moon on Sunday, the latest in a string of companies looking to kickstart business on Earth's celestial neighbour ahead of astronaut missions.

An image of the far side of the Moon

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, aiming for the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the Moon's northeastern edge of the near side. Confirmation of touchdown came from the company's Mission Control outside Austin, Texas, following the action some 225,000 miles (360,000 km) away.

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