Intuitive Machines\u2019 uncrewed lunar lander touched down at 5:23 p.m. CST (11:23 UTC) on Thursday 22 February.<\/p>
The instruments aboard Odysseus are helping NASA to prepare for future missions to put humans back on the Moon.<\/p>
And that’s one reason why this mission is so historic: it’s the first commercial spacecraft to soft-land on the surface of the Moon.<\/p>
It’s also the first time a US spacecraft has landed on the lunar surface since the Apollo missions, which ended in 1972.<\/p>
Looking to the future, NASA will be celebrating the Odysseus lander’s successful touchdown as it marks a new era of the agency’s exploration of the Moon.<\/p>
Lessons learned through the landing, and through science carried out on the surface, can inform future Artemis missions and are a step towards a permanent human settlement on the Moon.<\/p> The Odysseus lander and IM-1 mission launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 15 February.<\/p> After successful lunar orbit insertion on 21 February, Odysseus began orbiting the Moon about 12 miles above the surface.<\/p> It then achieved soft landing near crater Malapert A, 300 kilometers) from the Moon’s south pole.<\/p> “Today for the first time in more than a half-century, the US has returned to the moon,” says NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.<\/p> “Today is a day that shows the power and promise of NASA\u2019s commercial partnerships. Congratulations to everyone involved in this great and daring quest.”<\/p>![\"The](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/02\/odysseus-moonlanding-ground-control-1024x423.jpg?fit=800%2C330\")