Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 lander, also known as Odysseus or “Odie” has landed on the moon after facing technical issues prior to the landing.
“I know this was a nail-biter, but we are on the surface, and we are transmitting,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus announced on a live webcast. “Welcome to the moon.”
The organization has confirmed that the mission control received signals from the moon after the landing. But it wasn’t until two hours later that the Odysseus spacecraft shared that the craft was upright and starting to send signals.
This is a historic milestone in the journey of space exploration, marking the first commercial spacecraft to soft land on the lunar surface, and also the first US made space vehicle to touchdown moon since Apollo-11 program, which ended 5 decades ago. This is a crucial mission for Intuitive Machine’s primary customer, NASA which is looking to scout the lunar surface using robotic explorers before sending astronauts through its Artemis program.
“Today for the first time in more than a half-century, the US has returned to the moon,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Today is a day that shows the power and promise of NASA’s commercial partnerships. Congratulations to everyone involved in this great and daring quest.”
The Odysseus spacecraft landed at 6:24 p.m. ET Thursday after its engine steer itself towards the cratered surface and reduced its speed drastically by 4000 miles per hour.
A few hours before landing, an issue arise in the navigation system of the ship forcing the lander to rely on experimental technology, which resulted in a dynamic situation, Gary Jordan, NASA communication manager said.
“the company Intuitive Machines made the decision to reassign the primary navigation sensors from Odysseus, to use the sensors on NASA’s Navigation Doppler Lidar (or NDL),” as per the webcast.
Since the end of the US-Soviet space race, China, India and Japan have all landed spacecrafts on the moon.
The lander which is sized almost as a phone booth spent past 6 weeks in space, travelling almost 620,370 miles through the dark space before entering into the lunar orbit on Wednesday morning.
What is the mission?
Intuitive Machines aimed to land Odysseus near Malapert A, a crater near the moon’s south pole.
Malapert is a region that’s comparatively flat and the location is strategic: the south pole is of broad international interest as it suspects to be home to stores of water ice, which will eventually be converted into drinking water or even rocket fuel.
Odds of success?
The US is quite anxious to regain a presence on the moon as NASA aims to carry out robotic exploration missions in order to learn about the lunar surface in more details through private partners as it focuses on preparing astronauts to land on moon.
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