The private landing module captured stunning footage of the Moon's surface with Earth visible in the background (video).

The American company Firefly Aerospace is preparing to land its lunar module Blue Ghost on the surface of the Moon in the Sea of Crises on March 2. The module has successfully completed a series of maneuvers in orbit around the Moon to get as close as possible to its surface and captured stunning images of the Moon's surface with Earth in the background, reports Space.

Now, as announced by Firefly Aerospace, the lunar module has completed all necessary maneuvers for landing on the Moon. On February 24, Blue Ghost fired its engines for 16 seconds and entered a nearly circular low lunar orbit.

During this time, using its onboard cameras, Blue Ghost took close-up photographs of the Moon's surface, which is covered with numerous craters. The images also show the distant Earth and a very bright Sun. From these photographs, Firefly Aerospace created a video that they shared with astronomy enthusiasts.

The next maneuver of the lunar module will focus on beginning its descent in an attempt to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface this Sunday. Onboard the lunar module are 10 payloads from NASA, including instruments for studying lunar regolith, the radiation environment on the Moon, and solar wind.

After landing on the Moon, Blue Ghost, which charges its batteries using sunlight, will operate on the lunar surface for one lunar day, or about 14 Earth days. Once the lunar night arrives and the light source disappears, the mission will conclude.