U.S. lands unmanned spacecraft on moon

U.S. lands unmanned Odysseus spacecraft on moon

*by Dylan Stableford and Caitlin Dickson

An unmanned, robotic lunar lander launched by a private U.S. company landed on the moon Thursday evening.


“We can confirm, without a doubt, that our equipment is on the surface of the moon,” said Stephen Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based company that operated the Odysseus spacecraft. “Welcome to the moon.”

As it approached the surface of the moon, Odysseus lost contact with NASA, resulting in several anxious minutes for those who worked on the joint project. But after approximately 15 minutes of searching, officials confirmed that they were once again receiving signals from the spacecraft.

It was the first American mission to land on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 and the first private spacecraft ever to make a soft landing there.

While it was a private mission, NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to deliver six instruments to the moon. And the U.S. space agency provided streaming video of the landing.

Aside from the six NASA instruments and the EagleCam, the Odysseus lander was also carrying a part for a future moon telescope and a project by American sculpture artist Jeff Koons.

The landing site is about 185 miles from the moon’s south pole. According to a New York Times report, Odysseus was “aiming for a spot in the south polar region, a flat plain outside the Malapert A crater.” The crater is named after Charles Malapert, a 17th century Belgian astronomer.

Despite technical issues nearly causing a delay, Odysseus reached the surface of the moon Thursday February 22 2024 at approximately 6:23 p.m. ET.

Read the full article at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/watch-live-us-moon-landing-how-to-stream-lunar-lander-intuitive-machines-odysseus-houston-apollo-nasa-164032673.html