The head of a Quebec aerospace company says he’s thrilled by the confirmation that a private lunar lander has touched down on the moon with his company’s technology aboard.
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost successfully descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, carrying experiments for NASA and several Canadian-based technologies.
Jean De Lafontaine says the moment has been a decade in the making for Sherbrooke, Que.-based NGC Aerospace, which produces a GPS-like lunar navigation system that maps the moon’s craters.
He says the technology should allow scientists to calculate lunar landings more accurately, allowing them to aim for interesting areas and avoid dangerous ones.
The lunar lander carried a drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA, as well as NGC’s software and a Canadian-made moon dust repellent.
Today’s upright and stable landing makes Firefly the first private outfit to put a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over.
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