It is the first private, American mission to reach Earth’s satellite in half a century
The space module Odysseus, from the company Intuitive Machines, has managed to successfully move away from the Moon this Friday. The spacecraft, which carries no crew, has made history as the first by a private company and the first from the United States to return to the satellite since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
NASA, the American space agency, which collaborates in the IM-1 mission, has confirmed that Odysseus has touched the lunar surface at 00.23 hours (Catalonia time). “Odysseus now has a new home,” the mission officials said. “Your order has been delivered… to the Moon,” NASA said, referring to the commercial nature of the mission.
A delayed descent and a spectacular photo
The descent of Odysseus has been delayed from the scheduled time after two adjustments to make “corrective maneuvers”. The mission’s operators have also opted to do “an additional orbit” before moving away to the South Pole area, a little-explored region, according to NASA. Specifically, it has arrived near the massif of Malapert, about 300 kilometers from the pole.
During the trip, Odysseus sent back a stunning image showing parts of the Moon’s north. The camera has captured a view of the crater Bel’kovich K, in the northern equatorial highlands of the satellite. It is a crater of about 50 kilometers in diameter with mountains in the middle.
A scientific and technological mission
Odysseus, which lifted off seven days ago from Florida, is a Nova-C series spacecraft, measuring 4.3 meters tall and weighing 675 kilograms. He will now only have seven days to carry out his experiments before the lunar night leaves him unable to function due to the low temperatures, which will freeze him. It is not scheduled to return to earth.
The primary objective of the IM-1 mission is to bring scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to the Moon, some of which are from NASA under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. IM-1 is part of the US agency’s Artemis lunar return program.
The landing site is one of thirteen regions NASA is considering for the Artemis III mission, which will be the first manned Artemis. The instruments of the space agency carried by Odysseus will serve to “prepare a future human exploration of the Moon”, he emphasized.
