Watch | US Spaceship Odysseus Ends US Half-Century Lunar Hiatus by Landing on the Moon
An American spacecraft touched down on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo period and for over fifty years. NASA financed the construction of the spacecraft, an unmanned commercial robot known as Odysseus, which was manufactured in Houston by Intuitive Machines.
Later this decade, Odysseus will open the door for American astronauts to return to Earth’s neighbor. Around 23:23 GMT on Thursday, Odysseus made landfall close to the lunar south pole.
After the lander came to rest, flight controllers had to use an experimental landing technique, which made the final fall very suspenseful. It took them several minutes to make radio communication with the lander.
In a video, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said, “Today, the US has returned to the Moon for the first time in more than a half century.” “A commercial company, an American company, launched and led the voyage up there today for the first time in human history.”
According to an AFP article, the images taken by an external “EagleCam” that was intended to be launched from the spacecraft in its last moments of fall would probably be made public early on Friday.
Intuitive Machines released an update on X that said, “After troubleshooting communications, flight controllers have confirmed Odysseus is upright and starting to send data.”
We are now attempting to downlink the first pictures taken from the lunar surface.
HICCUPS AND LUNAR SOUTH POLE LANDING
Odysseus flew the last part of his journey utilizing an experimental laser guiding system created by NASA to function exclusively as a technological showcase when the onboard navigation system malfunctioned during the descent.
It was expected that confirmation of the landing would come shortly after the milestone, but instead, broadcasters speculated for over fifteen minutes about whether the plane had landed “off angle.”
As cheers erupted in mission control, the company’s chief technical officer, Tim Crain, finally verified, “our equipment is on the surface of the Moon and we are transmitting.”
At an impact crater called Malapert A, which is 300 kilometers (180 miles) from the lunar south pole, Odysseus made landfall.
The Odysseus has a hexagonal design and resembles a big golf cart in size. On February 15, it was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. Its innovative liquid oxygen and methane propulsion technology allowed it to quickly complete the quarter-million-mile journey.
Six NASA research instruments are carried by Odysseus, including a device to analyze charged dust particle clouds that linger over the lunar surface at twilight due to solar radiation and cameras to study how the surface changes as a consequence of a spaceship’s engine exhaust.
The remaining cargo, which included 125 miniature Moons made of stainless steel by artist Jeff Koons, was transported on behalf of private customers of Intuitive Machines.
Through its flagship project Artemis, NASA aims to ultimately establish a permanent presence and gather polar ice for use as rocket fuel and drinking water on a future mission to Mars.
Joel Kearns, a senior NASA official, described the present mission as “one of the first forays into the south pole to actually look at the environmental conditions to a place we’re going to be sending our astronauts in the future.”
At the latest in 2026, NASA plans to send a crewed mission to the area. In 2030, China, America’s geopolitical adversary, intends to launch its first crew to the Moon, sparking a new phase of space combat.
Without an atmosphere, spacecraft landing on the moon must maneuver over hazardous terrain and depend on thrusters to regulate their descent.
