For the first time in more than 50 years, the United States has landed a craft on the Moon, but the mission did not go precisely to plan.
Intuitive Machines built a lunar lander that successfully touched down on February 22, but the company said it only detected a weak signal from the lander, named Odysseus. In a status update today, February 23, the company said Odysseus is “alive and well” on the Moon.
People are responding to the news with messages akin to “pics or it didn’t happen.” A press conference is scheduled for later today where more details are due to be announced. Presumably there will be new images from the surface of the Moon, too.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson said Odysseus landing on the Moon is a “triumph for humanity.”
This marked the first time since the Apollo 17, a mission to the Moon in 1972, that America has returned to its surface. That was a crewed mission. There were no people on Odysseus, as this was an uncrewed mission for scientific research. NASA is indeed hoping to get humans back to the Moon as part of the Artemis program, but that mission is facing delays.
A different private American company, Astrobotic, launched its own lunar lander headed to the Moon in January. However, things went wrong. The craft, which was carrying some of JFK and George Washington’s hair, and the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, did not make it.
Today, for the first time in half a century, America has returned to the Moon 🇺🇸.
On the eighth day of a quarter-million-mile voyage, @Int_Machines aced the landing of a lifetime.
What a feat for IM, @SpaceX & @NASA.
What a triumph for humanity.
Odysseus has taken the Moon. pic.twitter.com/JwtCQmMS2K— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) February 23, 2024
It’s proven difficult to get back to the Moon for the US and other countries. In 2023, Japan’s space agency got its lunar lander within 33 feet of the Moon before it lost communication with the craft, with the assumption being that it crashed.
NASA provided millions in funding to private companies like Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic to help advance systems in delivering commercial cargo to the Moon. Eventually, NASA wants to build a Moon base and find new ways to stimulate the economy on the Moon.
Only four countries have ever landed on the Moon–the US, Russia, India, and China.