The moon has a brand new visitor, as Firefly Aerospace has made history by becoming the first private company to ever make a fully successful landing on the moon. The Blue Ghost lander touched down on the moons surface at 3:34 a.m. ET on Sunday, March 2, making a soft landing with its payload of science experiments and technology tests on board.With the crater-pocked surface of the moon providing a challenge for landing, the frankly terrifying landing process was performed autonomously, with the lander adjusting its trajectory and selecting a safe landing site using a downward-facing camera and software called terrain relative navigation. This allows the landers onboard computer to accurately gauge its location and speed, and to identify potential hazards to landing such as boulders and craters.Recommended VideosRight up until the last moment the Firefly team were still worrying over the landing, a team member told Digital Trends, and even with the landing complete they will still be focused on the next challenge:Please enable Javascript to view this contentThe fretting never goes away, said Kevin Scholtes, Fireflys Future Systems Architect. If anything were always just planning for the next big adventure. The name of the game here is that we want to leave the future brighter than we found it. So part of that means perpetually fretting over the details.There were cheers and jubilation in the Firefly control room in Austin, Texas and the lander made its safe descend. Were on the moon! NASAs Nicky Fox, Associate Administrator for NASAs Science Mission Directorate, announced at a landing event to the delight of the audience.The lander touched down in a region called Mare Crisium, where it will stay and collect data for the next two weeks. The payloads on board include experiments from NASA, which supported the landing as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program to use private companies to carry essential supplies to the moon.The experiments on board include a drill and sample collection system, a test of dust-repelling technology which is important to deal with the glass-sharp dust that covers the moons surface, and instruments for studying how winds from the sun interact with Earths magnetic field.The first images from Blue Ghosts landing are expected to come in within the next hour, and well update this post as soon as they are available.Editors Recommendations