The landing put the U.S. back on the surface for the first time since NASA’s famed Apollo moonwalkers.
Flight controllers at Intuitive Machines in Houston react after its private spacecraft touched down on the moon on Thursday. | Intuitive Machines via APCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A private lander touched down on the moon Thursday but managed just a weak signal back, as flight controllers scrambled to gain better contact with the first U.S. spacecraft to reach the lunar surface in more than 50 years.
Mission director Tim Crain said the team was evaluating how to refine the lone signal from the lander, named Odysseus.Added Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus: “I know this was a nail-biter, but we are on the surface and we are transmitting. Welcome to the moon.” Odysseus descended from a moon-skimming orbit and guided itself toward the surface, searching for a relatively flat spot among all the cliffs and craters near the south pole.
Launched last week, the six-footed carbon fiber and titanium lander — towering 14 feet — carried six experiments for NASA. The space agency gave the company $118 million to build and fly the lander, part of its effort to commercialize lunar deliveries ahead of the planned return of astronauts in a few years.
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