Cape Canaveral, Florida –
A U.S. spacecraft is the first to land on the moon since the Apollo astronauts fell silent on Thursday after breaking their legs during landing and falling near the moon’s south pole.
Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander ultimately held out longer than the company expected, although solar power and communications were disrupted.
The end came when flight controllers received the final photo from Odysseus and ordered the computers and power systems to standby. That way, if the lander survives the frigid lunar night, it could wake up in a few weeks. Intuitive Machines spokesman Josh Marshall said the lander’s batteries were depleted during these final stages and Odysseus “took a long nap.”
“Good night, Odie. We look forward to hearing from you again,” the company said via X (formerly Twitter).
Before losing his powers, Odysseus sent back what the Intuitive Machine called a “befitting farewell transmitter.”
This photo, taken just before touchdown, shows the bottom of the lander on the moon’s pockmarked surface, with a small crescent of Earth and a small sun in the background.
The lander was originally scheduled to spend about a week on the moon.
Houston-based Intuitive Machines became the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon without crashing when Odysseus landed on February 22nd. Only five countries have achieved that goal since the 1960s, including Japan, which landed on its side last month.
Odysseus conducted six experiments for NASA, which paid US$118 million for the experiments. The first companies to join NASA’s commercial moon delivery program never made it to the moon. That lander crashed to Earth in January.
NASA views these commercial landers as reconnaissance missions that will pave the way for the astronauts expected to arrive within the next few years.
Until Odysseus, America’s last moon landing was in 1972 with Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt on Apollo 17.
