Odysseus Moon Landing Updates: Nova-C makes the first successful commercial landing on the Moon

Odysseus' landing on the moon was a success!

Despite technical issues that nearly caused a delay, Odysseus reached the moon's surface at approximately 6:23 p.m. ET.

“We can confirm without a doubt that the equipment is on the moon,” Dr. Tim Crane said in a NASA broadcast. “Odysseus has a new home.”

High-resolution images of the moon landing are expected to be published at a later time, according to the agency.

Intuitive Machines' lander, named Odysseus, lifted off last week from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and entered lunar orbit on Wednesday. This is the first trade decline in the history of the United States.

This marks the first landing of an American-made spacecraft in more than 50 years.

The lander carries five NASA instruments, including a dedicated radio beacon Transfer precise geolocation And the cameras that capture How does the surface of the moon change? From interactions with the spacecraft's drive shaft, as well as commercial cargo.

Odysseus — nicknamed “Odie” by employees — will have seven days before darkness descends on the landing site, which will prevent the spacecraft's solar panels from collecting energy from sunlight and bringing freezing temperatures.

Intuitive Machines was one of several companies certified by NASA under Commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) is contracting to build private lunar landers that will be used by the Federal Space Agency, among others, to send instruments into space.

The names of the company's employees are etched into the footer to permanently stamp their names on the moon's surface, said Steve Altemus, president and CEO of Intuitive Machines.

“I engraved everyone's names on the bottom of the landing gear so that their names will be indelibly printed on the moon when we land softly,” he told ABC News.

This is the third attempt to land on the moon this year. In early January, the Peregrine lunar lander, built by Astrobotic, suffered a serious fuel leak, forcing it to return to Earth and burn up upon its return.

Meanwhile, Japan launched a rocket to the moon in September 2023 and landed on January 19, becoming the fifth country to do so. However, the lunar lander landed upside down and was unable to deploy its solar arrays.

“There's low gravity, very little atmosphere, and a lot of dust, and so engineers have to guess how the spacecraft will behave in that kind of environment, right? And it doesn't exist here on Earth,” says Regina Blue, NASA's CLPS deputy. The program director told ABC News, explaining why landing on the moon is so difficult.

“So they have to spend a lot of hours testing and testing and testing some more, and even going into that environment there's a lot of unpredictability, which makes it very difficult,” she continued.

These robotic missions are important for exploring the moon, as NASA and the Canadian Space Agency are preparing to send four astronauts to fly around the moon in the near future.

” target=”_blank”>The Artemis II mission next year. If the mission is successful, the Artemis III moon landing is scheduled to take place in 2026.

The Artemis team will consist of three Americans – Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch, and Reed Wiseman – and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen.