Blue Ghost Captures Solar Eclipse in Reverse

Blue Ghost captured a solar eclipse from a unique angle this week. Here are some of the top stories from The Journal of Space Commerce this week.

Normally, when we think about a solar eclipse, it's the Moon crossing in front of the Sun and casting a shadow on Earth. But this week, the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lander watched the Earth pass in front of the sun from its vantage point on the Moon in Mare Crisium.

The eclipse lasted about 5 hours, with approximately 2 hours and 16 minutes of totality. While it was not a stated mission requirement, Firefly's goal was to image the eclipse, and potentially operate NASA instruments to measure changes in the lunar environment from this unique perspective.

Capturing this footage required Blue Ghost to rely on its batteries for power rather than its solar panels, presenting a challenge during the darkness of the eclipse, but Firefly Aerospace says it captured this incredible phenomenon and hopes to share it with the world.

Earlier this week, Blue Ghost performed ongoing LISTER operations. Mounted below Blue Ghost’s lower deck, NASA’s Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) payload is a pneumatic, gas-powered drill developed by Texas Tech University and Honeybee Robotics. It measures the temperature and flow of heat from the Moon’s interior.

Overall, eight out of 10 NASA payloads have already met their Blue Ghost Mission objectives.

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The space industry gathered in Washington, D.C. this week for Satellite Week. This series of events highlighted the significant contributions that the manufacturers, engineers, and entrepreneurs in America’s space sector are making to the country’s economy and national security.

At the start of the event, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr summarized some of the early wins the agency has delivered for America’s space industry. Chairman Carr also announced three north stars that will guide the FCC’s work to extend U.S. leadership in space—speed, simplification, and spectrum.

Within just weeks of leading the FCC, Chairman Carr has prioritized America’s space economy and delivered an initial set of early wins for the sector, including:

* 33 space station and 200 ground station applications granted since January 20th alone.

* Enabling faster and more robust direct-to-cell service by allowing providers to operate on spectrum at higher power levels.

* And the Elimination of the FCC’s slow, resource intensive review mechanisms by starting the process of standardizing the agency’s review and approval procedures through objective metrics.

He promised to focus the FCC’s work on speed, simplification, and ensuring satellite operators have the spectrum resources necessary to fuel this sector’s growth. These pillars will make America the most attractive country in the world to launch a space business.

Later during the show, Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz, echoed those sentiments, saying that in the past the agency has chosen paperwork, processes, and precautions, and it is now urgent that it change course.

Stay tuned.

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A few months ago, we introduced you to a company called Star Catcher on The Ex Terra Podcast. This week, the company announced a strategic partnership with Space Florida to advance what would be the world's first space energy grid.

On the podcast in August, Star Catcher CEO Andrew Rush explained how the system is designed to work.

"We will fly our power nodes in select orbits in Low Earth Orbit at about 1,500 kilometers in altitude, so we're kind of looking down on everybo