Private Spacecraft Makes Successful Moon Landing, The First For US Since 1972 Apollo Mission

The US on Thursday returned to the moon after nearly half a century with a spacecraft of a private company landing near the Lunar south pole.

The uncrewed six-legged robot lander, dubbed Odysseus, built and flown by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines was launched on February 15.

REUTERS

Odysseus successfully lands on Moon

Despite the spotty communication, Intuitive Machines, the company that built and managed the craft, confirmed that it had landed upright. But it did not provide additional details, including whether the lander had reached its intended destination near the moon¡¯s south pole. The company ended its live webcast soon after identifying a lone, weak signal from the lander.

¡°We can confirm, without a doubt, our equipment is on the surface of the moon,¡± mission director Tim Crain reported as tension built in the company¡¯s Houston control center.

AFP

Odysseus is carrying a suite of scientific instruments and technology demonstrations for NASA and several commercial customers designed to operate for seven days on solar energy before the sun sets over the polar landing site.

The NASA payload will focus on collecting data on space weather interactions with the moon's surface, radio astronomy and other aspects of the lunar environment for future landers and NASA's planned return of astronauts later in the decade.

AP

US on the moon after 52 years

Thursday's landing represented the first controlled descent to the lunar surface by a US spacecraft since Apollo 17 in 1972, when NASA's last crewed moon mission landed there with astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt.

To date, spacecraft from just four other countries have ever landed on the moon - the former Soviet Union, China, India and, mostly recently, just last month, Japan. The United States is the only one ever to have sent humans to the lunar surface.

AP

First private spacecraft to land on moon

Intuitive Machines also became the first private business to pull off a lunar landing, a feat achieved by only five countries. Another US company, Astrobotic Technology, gave it a shot last month, but never made it to the moon, and the lander crashed back to Earth.

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