The Odysseus Marks the First US Spacecraft Landing on the Moon in Half a Century!

Intuitive Machines is the first private company to reach the lunar surface.

The Odysseus, a spacecraft developed by Houston's Intuitive Machines, has achieved a successful landing on the moon's surface. This event is notable for being the first lunar landing by a private company's spacecraft, as well as the first time a US-manufactured spacecraft has made it to the moon since the era of the Apollo missions.

The spacecraft was equipped with NASA instruments intended to support the space agency's preparations for upcoming manned moon missions as part of the Artemis program. NASA announced that the landing took place at 6:23 PM ET on February 22. Odysseus embarked on its journey to the moon on February 15, propelled by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The New York Times reported that there were a few hiccups with the flight that pushed back the landing by a couple of hours. Tim Crain, the CTO over at Intuitive Machines, had to say, "Odysseus is definitely on the moon and operating but it remains to be seen whether the mission can achieve its objectives." Now, here's the kicker: Odysseus is racing against the clock, with just about a week to beam all its data back to us before the moon goes all dark on us, which, you know, isn't ideal for a solar-powered spacecraft.

And get this, Intuitive Machines isn't even the first private team to give moon landing a shot. Astrobotic had a go last month with their Peregrine lander, but things didn't exactly go to plan. But it's not stopping there—Intuitive Machines is already gearing up to send two more landers to the moon this year. Talk about aiming high, right?

Reports are coming in stating the whole landing scene with Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus spacecraft didn’t go quite as planned. Spilling the tea in a press conference with NASA on Friday night, the folks at Intuitive Machines shared that Odysseus didn't stick the landing perfectly and ended up taking a bit of a tumble. Turns out, it came in hot, faster than they expected, and probably snagged its foot on the moon’s surface, ending up laying on its side. But hey, it’s not all doom and gloom! The spacecraft found itself in a lucky spot where the sun's still hitting its solar panels just right, keeping the batteries juiced up, and they’ve managed to get the lines of communication open. So, we should be getting some out-of-this-world selfies from the moon’s surface pretty soon.

At first, everyone thought Odysseus nailed the landing. But after taking a closer look, the team realised things didn’t quite add up. Steve Altemus, the big boss at Intuitive Machines and co-founder, pointed fingers at some "stale telemetry" for giving them the wrong impression initially. Talk about a space oopsie!

Current situation: everything's pretty much upside down—well, except for Jeff Koons' Moon Phases sculptures. Those bad boys ended up right side up because, you know, art always finds a way. Despite the topsy-turvy landing, the crew and all the NASA science stuff onboard have been busy bees, gathering intel from the trip down and the grand entrance itself. The team's digging through all that data to piece together the landing puzzle. And guess what? Odysseus seems to be holding its own out there.

Now, for the cool part: they're planning to send the EagleCam for a little spacewalk—well, sort of. This clever camera, cooked up by the bright minds at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, is getting ready to snap a family photo of Odysseus chilling with the moon. The plan was to have EagleCam fly free during the descent to catch that big moment live, but let's just say the universe had other plans on landing day. 

So, picture this: Odysseus is in lunar orbit, mere hours from its big moon landing moment, right? And then, bam! The team realises their super-important laser range finders, which are like the spacecraft's GPS for nailing the landing, aren't working. Why? Because of a classic human whoopsie—someone forgot to flip the on switch. Can you imagine? Steve Altemus, the big boss, described it as feeling like a gut punch. They were staring down the barrel of a potential mission flop.

But then, in comes the hero of the hour, Tim Crain, co-founder and tech wizard, with a brilliant Hail Mary. He's like, Hey, let's not panic. We've got this NASA gadget onboard, the Navigation Doppler LIDAR (NDL), let's use that instead. And guess what? It worked like a charm. Odysseus lands, mission saved! They're now racing against the clock, squeezing every bit of science they can before the moon goes night-night for a week (lunar night). Talk about a rollercoaster ride!