The spaceship Odysseus of Intuitive Machines sent the first images from its southernmost part Moonwhere no other craft had ever landed on the moon and the American private company shared two of these photos on X.
The spacecraft, approximately four meters high, landed on the moon at 01:23 at dawn last Friday (Greece time). She was the first time a private company sent a craft to the moon and, at the same time, the first moon landing for the US in 50 years. However, the final descent was complicated by a malfunction in the navigation system, and Odysseus, instead of descending vertically, found himself falling sideways.
“Odysseus is still communicating with Nova Control's flight controllers from the lunar surface,” the company said today, releasing the two photos, one during descent and another 35 seconds after it fell, showing the bedrock of the Malapert Crater.
The vessel carries its scientific instruments NASA, which wanted to explore the Moon's south pole before sending astronauts there, as part of the Artemis missions. The US space agency decided to outsource this work to private companies. With this strategy he will manage to make the trip to the Moon more often and cheaper.
It is noted that the Japanese space agency Jaxa announced earlier that the Japanese SLIM spacecraft, which had landed on the moon at the end of January, has become active again. SLIM was also tilted during its descent and its photovoltaics were facing west, so they were not collecting sunlight.
Source: News Beast
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