America has landed on the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The first lunar lander of American company Intuitive Machines has landed on the Moon. It is the first American spacecraft to land on the lunar surface in more than 50 years.
Commercial American spacecraft Odysseus Lunar Lander has successfully landed on the South Pole of the Moon, sending a signal, but it has been reported to be sending a weak signal. Private company Intuitive Machines has been appointed for this mission, which said that a commercial spacecraft landed near the south pole of the Moon, but the controller was getting signals from the hexagon-shaped lander Odysseus.
Your order was delivered… to the Moon! 📦@Int_Machines‘ uncrewed lunar lander landed at 6:23pm ET (2323 UTC), bringing NASA science to the Moon’s surface. These instruments will prepare us for future human exploration of the Moon under #Artemis. pic.twitter.com/sS0poiWxrU
— NASA (@NASA) February 22, 2024
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According to NASA, at 6:23 pm on Thursday (4:53 am Indian time), an uncrewed lander named Odysseus landed on the south pole of the Moon. The photo of the Odyssey lander has been shared by Intuitive Machines. Tim Crane, mission director of Intuitive Machines, said, “We are trying to understand the signals that are being received through the Odysseus lander. Our lander is on the surface of the Moon, which we can confirm without any doubt. “He congratulated the IM team and said that we are trying to get a strong signal from the lander.
On Thursday last week, the spacecraft was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. According to the report of Xinhua News Agency, this is the first robotic flight of Intuitive Machines on the surface of the moon.
The objective of this mission is to study the surface of the Moon. Apart from this, the scientific objective of the mission is also to study radio astronomy, plume-surface interactions, space weather interactions.
Regarding precision landing, NASA believes that it will better demonstrate the technologies and communications and navigation node capabilities.
NASA is working with several US companies to deliver science and technology to the surface of the Moon through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative.
Before this, the American spacecraft Apollo 17 last landed on the lunar surface in December 1972.
