The “Odysseus” spacecraft, manufactured by the Houston-based company “Intuitive Machines”, has successfully landed on the surface of the moon. This marks the first time a spacecraft from a private company has landed on the lunar surface, and it is the first US-made craft to reach the moon since the Apollo missions.
Odyssey carried NASA instruments that the space agency said will be used to prepare for future crewed missions to the Moon. . NASA confirmed that the landing occurred at 6:23 PM ET on February 22. From Earth on February 15 with the help of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
according to , there were some “flight-related technical issues” that delayed landing by several hours. “Odyssey is definitely on the Moon and working, but it remains to be seen whether the mission can achieve its goals,” Tim Crane, CTO of Intuitive Machines, told the paper. Odysseus has a limited window of about a week to send data back to Earth before darkness falls and renders the solar-powered ship inoperable.
Intuitive Machines wasn’t the first private company to attempt a landing. Astrobotic is made with his Peregrine lander last month, but failed. plans to launch Intuitive Machines who landed on the moon this year.
