AREQUIPA, Peru – Since the famous Apollo program and its last mission: Apollo 17 in 1972, no spacecraft had landed on the moon, at least not until February 22, when the Odysseus module made history.
The space vehicle, also called the Nova-C lander, touched down on the moon a few days after its launch, becoming the first spacecraft developed by a private company to land on that Earth satellite.
NASA director Bill Nelson called the achievement “a giant leap for all of humanity,” emulating the words of Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the Moon in 1969.
“Welcome to the moon,” were the words of Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus after the successful landing of the module created by his company.
The Odysseus left Earth on February 9 aboard a SpaceX Falcon rocket and had to travel almost a million kilometers to reach lunar orbit.
The spacecraft landed near a crater called Malapert A, located in the south pole region of the satellite. In recent times, that area of the moon has been the subject of study by scientists, who believe that frozen water abounds in its craters under permanent shadow.
NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to carry out the operation of the Odysseus, which will operate for a maximum of seven Earth days (equivalent to one lunar day) before running out of power due to the arrival of night on the moon.
The module that landed carried NASA scientific instruments and commercial cargo. These will be useful in carrying out scientific research and testing new technologies in the lunar environment, paving the way for future human and robotic exploration missions.
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2024-03-10 15:37:38
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