The Odysseus spacecraft made by Houston-based Intuitive Machines has efficiently landed on the floor of the moon. It marks the primary time a spacecraft from a personal firm has landed on the lunar floor, and it’s the primary US-made craft to achieve the moon because the Apollo missions.
Odysseus was carrying NASA devices, which the house company stated can be used to assist put together for future crewed missions to the moon beneath the Artemis program. NASA confirmed the touchdown occurred at 6:23 PM ET on February 22. The lander launched from Earth on February 15, with the assistance of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
In keeping with The New York Times, there have been some “technical points with the flight” that delayed the touchdown for a few hours. Intuitive Machines CTO Tim Crain instructed the paper that “Odysseus is certainly on the moon and working however it stays to be seen whether or not the mission can obtain its targets.” Odysseus has a restricted window of a few week to ship information again all the way down to Earth earlier than darkness units in and makes the solar-powered craft inoperable.
Intuitive Machines wasn’t the primary personal firm to aim a touchdown. Astrobotic made an attempt final month with its Peregrine lander, however was unsuccessful. Intuitive Machines is planning to launch two other lunar landers this yr.
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