US launches lunar lander half a century after Apollo mission

The company's Nova-C lander, named Odysseus, launched shortly after 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT) Thursday atop SpaceX's two-stage Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

My room that disappeared half a century later, the story of Apollo's final mission, picture 1 — SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off on mission IM-1 from Kennedy Space Center, carrying Intuitive Machine's Nova-C lunar lander, February 15, 2024. Photo: Reuters

The two-stage rocket lifted off from the launch pad and soared into the dark sky over Florida's Atlantic coast, trailing a fiery yellow plume of exhaust, according to NASA and SpaceX's live video feed.

About 48 minutes after launch, the Odysseus lander began to be released from the Falcon 9's upper stage, about 385 kilometers (240 miles) above Earth, and drifted on its own on its journey to the Moon.

Moments later, the company's Houston headquarters received the first radio signal from Odysseus as the lander began the process of automatically powering up its systems and orienting itself in space.

The flight, called IM-1, is carrying six NASA instrument payloads designed to collect data on the lunar environment, serving NASA's planned return of astronauts to the Moon later this decade, after a hiatus of more than 50 years.

A week after launch, Odysseus is scheduled to land in the Malapert A crater near the Moon's south pole on February 22. If successful, it will be the first US moon landing since the last Apollo moon mission in 1972, and the first flight by a privately owned vehicle.

Thursday's launch comes a month after another private company, Astrobotic Technology's Peregrine lunar lander, suffered an engine system leak en route to the Moon shortly after being placed into orbit by a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket on January 8.

The failure of the Peregrine lander, which also carried NASA equipment to the Moon, marked the third time a private company failed to achieve a "soft landing" on the lunar surface, following similar attempts by companies from Israel and Japan.

My room that disappeared half a century later, the story of Apollo's last mission, picture 2 — The Nova-C lunar lander designed by aerospace company Intuitive Machines is displayed at the company's headquarters in Houston, Texas, US, October 3, 2023. Photo: Reuters

IM-1 is NASA's latest test of a strategy of paying to use spacecraft built and owned by private companies to cut costs for the Artemis missions, seen as a precursor to human exploration of Mars.

Last month, NASA said its Artemis mission's crewed moon landing would be delayed from 2025 to late 2026, while China said it was targeting 2030.

Before the Artemis mission, small landers like Nova-C will carry instruments to closely survey the lunar landscape, resources, and potential hazards. The Odysseus lander is expected to focus on space weather interactions with the lunar surface, radio astronomy, precision landing technology, and navigation.

Following the IM-1 flight, Intuitive Machine plans to launch an IM-2 mission to land on the lunar south pole in 2024, followed by an IM-3 mission later that year with several small rovers.

Last month, Japan became the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the Moon after its SLIM probe successfully landed on the surface. Last year, India became the fourth country to set foot on the Moon after Russia failed in its attempt the same month.

The United States, the former Soviet Union, and China are the only countries to have successfully performed soft landings on the Moon. In 2019, China scored a world first by achieving the first landing on the far side of the Moon.

Hoai Phuong (according to Reuters)

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