SpaceX delays launching its intelligent robots Moon mission

One more month, one more attempt at the moon, but not on Wednesday.
Tuesday night, SpaceX revealed that the planned launch of a privately funded robotic lunar lander had been postponed.

Built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, the spacecraft is perched atop the rocket on the launchpad. Although the weather was ideal, a technical problem caused the trip to be delayed by at least one day.The next try is scheduled for Thursday at 1:05 a.m. Eastern time.
In the event that all goes according to plan, it will be the first American spacecraft to land gently on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. It will also be the most recent attempt by a private company to launch a spacecraft to the moon.
Why was there a delay in the launch?
Odysseus, the Intuitive Machines lander, was supposed to take off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday at 12:57 a.m. Eastern.
SpaceX said in a late-Tuesday post on X, the old Twitter, that the lander’s methane fuel temperature was “off-nominal.”
In the event that the technical issue is resolved, the next launch window on Thursday is expected to have good weather. On Friday, there is an additional backup launch window.
What time and location is the landing?
Launched this week, the landing is scheduled for February 22 in the vicinity of Malapert A crater. (Malapert A is a satellite crater of the larger Malapert crater, named after the Belgian astronomer Charles Malapert in the 17th century.)
About twenty-four hours before to the attempted landing, Odysseus will reach orbit around the moon.
The landing site lies on the near side of the moon, about 185 miles from the south pole. It is a reasonably flat area, making it simpler for a spacecraft to land there. The lunar south pole, which is a target for many space organizations and businesses because it could be rich in frozen water, has never been visited by an American spacecraft.
What is the spacecraft’s size?
Odysseus is the name of this specific lander designed by Intuitive Machines, which names its spacecraft design Nova-C. It is around 14 feet tall and 5 feet wide, and it has six landing legs in the shape of a hexagon. According to Intuitive Machines, the lander’s body is around the size of a vintage British phone booth—that is, it resembles the Tardis from the science fiction television series “Doctor Who”
When the lander is fully loaded with propellant, its launch weight is around 4,200 pounds.
What’s happening with the moon?
The primary client of Intuitive Machines is NASA, which is paying the business $118 million to transport its payloads on the mission. In addition, NASA invested an extra $11 million to develop and construct the six instruments used during the flight:
— A system of laser retroreflectors to return laser beams shot from the planet.
— A LIDAR device to track the spacecraft’s exact velocity and altitude as it approaches the lunar surface.
— A stereo camera to record the dust cloud created by the landing gear of the lander.
— A low-frequency radio receiver to gauge how radio communications are affected by charged particles close to the lunar surface.
— Lunar Node-1, a beacon that serves as an example of an autonomous navigation system.
— A device installed in the propellant tank that measures the amount of fuel left in the tank using radio waves.
Along with these payloads, the lander is also carrying an artwork by Jeff Koons, a camera constructed by students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, and a prototype sensor for a future moon telescope.
Did you not see another American spaceship on its way to the moon?
Astrobotic Technology launched its Peregrine lander toward the moon on January 8. However, soon after launch, a propulsion system problem ruled out any chance of landing. Ten days later, Peregrine burnt up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean when it swung back toward Earth.
Part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program are Odysseus and Peregrine. The program’s goal is to send experiments to the moon via private enterprises rather than having NASA construct and run its own lunar landers.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, Joel Kearns, the deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s scientific mission division, said, “We’ve always viewed these initial CLPS deliveries as being kind of a learning experience.”
In order to launch more missions more regularly and be ready to send people back to the moon as part of its Artemis program, the space agency thinks that this strategy will be much less expensive.