The United States returned to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years after a privately built spacecraft named Odysseus capped a nail-biting 73-minute descent from orbit with a landing near the moon’s south pole.
But amid celebrations of what Nasa hailed as “a giant leap forward”, there was no immediate confirmation of the status or condition of the lander, other than that it had reached its planned landing site at crater Malapert A.
Mission managers at Intuitive Machines, the Texas-based company that built the first commercial craft to land on the moon, worked into the evening to restore full communications with Odysseus, which they initially reported as “poor,” and to determine its workability.
The so-called “soft landing” on Thursday, which company founder Steve Altemus gave only an 80% chance of success, was designed to usher in a new era of lunar exploration as Nasa working on a scheduled late-2026 mission to return humans there.
“Welcome to the moon,” Altemus said when the landing was finally confirmed at 17:23, after about 10 minutes in which Odysseus was out of contact.
It was the first time any US-built spacecraft had landed on the moon since Nasa’s most recent crewed visit, the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, and the first visit by commercial vehicle since last month’s failure of Peregrine Oneanother partnership between the space agency and a private company, Astrobotic.
“Today, for the first time in more than half a century, the US returned to the moon. Today, for the first time in human history, a commercial company, an American company, launched the journey there and led,” said Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator.
“What a triumph. Odysseus captured the moon. This achievement is a giant leap forward for all of humanity.”
There was no video of Odysseus’ fully autonomous descent, which slowed to about 2.2 mph at 33 feet above the surface. But a camera built by students at Florida’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is designed to fall and take pictures immediately before landing, and Nasa cameras are set to photograph the ground from the spacecraft.
The 14-foot (4.3-meter) hexagonal, six-legged Nova-C lander, affectionately nicknamed Odie by Intuitive Machines employees, is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, in which the agency awards contracts to private partners, largely to support the Artemis program.
Nasa contributed $118 million to get it off the ground, with Intuitive Machines funding a further $130 million before its February 15 launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on a Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk’s SpaceX company.
The IM-1 missionlike the doomed Peregrine effort, carries a payload of scientific equipment designed to collect data on the lunar environment, specifically in the rocky region chosen as the landing site for NASA’s planned two-year manned Artemis III mission is.
It’s a dangerous area — “full of all these craters,” according to Nelson — but chosen because it’s believed to be rich in frozen water that could help sustain a permanent lunar base essential for future human missions to Mars.
Scientists announced last year that they believe tiny glass beads scattered across the moon’s surface may contain “billions of tons of water” which can be extracted and used on future missions.
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The risks are worth it, Nelson told CNN Thursday, “to see if there’s water in abundance. Because if there’s water, there’s rocket fuel: hydrogen and oxygen. And we can build a gas station at the South Pole of the moon.”
The planned operational life of the solar-powered lander is only seven days, before the landing site moves into Earth’s shadow about 186 miles from the moon’s south pole. But Nasa hopes it will be long enough for analysis of how the ground there reacted to the impact of the landing.
Other instruments will focus on space weather effects on the lunar surface, while a network of markers will be deployed for communication and navigation.
“Odysseus, powered by a company called Intuitive Machines, launched on a SpaceX rocket, with a plethora of Nasa scientific instruments, carries the dream of a new adventure in science, innovation and American leadership in space ,” Nelson said.
Through Artemis, Nasa’s return-to-the-moon program that also has longer-term visions of manned missions to Mars within the next two decades, the US is seeking to stay ahead of Russia and China, both of which are planning their own human moons. landings.
Only the US previously landed astronauts in six Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972, while five countries put unmanned spacecraft there. Japan joined the US, Russia, China and India last month when its Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (Slim) launched a successful, if awkward touchdown after a three-month flight.
Two more launches of Intuitive Machines are scheduled for later this year, including an ice drill to extract ingredients for rocket fuel, and another Nova-C lander carrying a small NASA rover and four small robots that will explore surface conditions.
