The Odysseus was the first commercial lunar lander to land on the moon. The plane landed just before 12:30 a.m. Dutch time. The company Intuitive Machines and space agency NASA announced.
Condition unknown
The lunar lander, developed by the American company Intuitive Machines, would land at a crater near the moon’s South Pole. It is not clear how the landing went, only few signals are received. The device may have ended up incorrectly.
The intention is for the Odysseus, of the Nova-C type, to investigate the crater where it landed. Astronauts may also be sent there in the future. The lander will collect data on, among other things, space weather and precision landing technologies. Odysseus also conducts research into the effect of charged particles from the sun on the surface of the moon. People who travel to the moon are fully exposed to those particles, with little protection from a magnetic field like on Earth.
Soft landing
If the operation is successful, it would be the first time that an American mission has managed to make a soft landing on the moon since NASA’s Apollo space program (1961-1972). It would also be the first time that a commercial company has achieved this. The last American landing on the moon took place in 1972, with Apollo 17. Last month, an attempt with another commercial spacecraft failed. Also in April last year, a Japanese commercial lander crashed while landing on the moon.