On Thursday, a spacecraft constructed and operated by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines successfully landed near the moon’s south pole. This marks the first U.S. landing on the lunar surface in over fifty years and a pioneering achievement by the private sector.
NASA, which had equipped the craft with various research instruments, celebrated the landing as a significant milestone in its objective to send a fleet of commercially operated spacecraft on scientific reconnaissance missions to the moon. This is in preparation for the planned return of astronauts to the moon later in this decade.
However, initial communication challenges following Thursday’s landing prompted concerns about potential impairments or obstacles affecting the vehicle.
The unmanned robot lander, known as Odysseus, made its touchdown at approximately 6:23 p.m. EST (2323 GMT), as reported by the company and NASA commentators during a joint webcast from Intuitive Machines’ mission operations center in Houston.
The landing marked the culmination of a tense final approach and descent, during which an issue arose with the spacecraft’s autonomous navigation system. This necessitated ground engineers to employ an untested solution at the last moment.
There was a period of time after an expected radio blackout before communications could be re-established with the spacecraft. This delay led to the determination of its status some 239,000 miles (384,000 km) away from Earth.