After a nail-biting descent, a commercial space company became the first in history to conduct the soft landing of a spacecraft on the Moon after their Odysseus lander touched down at 5:24 p.m. CST on February 22nd.
Landing in the area called Malapert A in the South Pole region of the Moon, the Houston-based Intuitive Machines carried a payload for NASA as part of their CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative, marking the first time NASA has returned to the Moon since the Apollo missions over 50 years ago.
Carrying six NASA science research and technology demonstrations, among other customer payloads, all NASA science instruments completed transit checkouts en route to the Moon.
“For the first time in more than half a century, America returned to the Moon. Congratulations to Intuitive Machines for placing the lunar lander Odysseus carrying NASA scientific instruments to a place no person or machine has gone before, the lunar South Pole,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
“This feat from Intuitive Machines, SpaceX, and NASA demonstrates the promise of American leadership in space and the power of commercial partnerships under NASA’s CLPS initiative.”
A NASA precision landing technology demonstration also provided critical last-minute assistance to ensure a soft landing. As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the lunar delivery is in the region where NASA will send astronauts to search for water and other lunar resources later this decade.
The payload is all about future use and occupation of the Moon, and consists of some pretty important pieces of technology.
The Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator is NASA’s attempt to pioneer a Global Positioning System (GPS) for the Moon, and uses positional data from spacecraft, ground stations, or rovers to provide navigation data for landers and astronauts. Similarly, a collection of eight retroreflectors left near the landing site will also provide precision laser guidance and ranging to incoming landers for decades to come.
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“In daring to confront one of humanity’s greatest challenges, Intuitive Machines created an entire lunar program that has ventured farther than any American mission to land on the Moon in over 50 years,” said Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines. “This humbling moment reminds us that pursuing the extraordinary requires both boldness and resilience.”
It wasn’t all science and government that touched down on the Moon on Friday; this was a commercial payload after all. Among other things were included some sculptures by artist Jeff Koons, and a sample of Colombia Sportswear’s “Omni-Heat” insulative fabric as part of a test to see how well it can contain heat.
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A private-private-public partnership seemed poised to make it to the Moon first when the Pittsburgh-based space company Astrobotic launched its Peregrine lunar lander on the inaugural flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket.
Unfortunately, a crippling fuel leak saw the upper-stage rocket and the capsule steered into a controlled destruction in the atmosphere.
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