Privately built lunar lander achieves the first US Moon landing since 1972

A privately built lunar lander, made history with a successful touchdown on the moon, becoming the first American vehicle to achieve this feat in over 50 years. The Nova-C lander, nicknamed Odysseus, overcame a late-stage glitch with its onboard laser instruments and landed on the lunar surface at around 6:24 p.m. ET. This marks the first American spacecraft on the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

The achievement was celebrated by the company’s Chief Technology Officer Tim Crain, who radioed back from mission control, announcing, “Houston, Odysseus has found its new home.” Despite a brief loss of contact during the final descent, the team received confirmation that Odysseus had successfully landed and was starting to send data back to Earth.

Intuitive Machines CEO Stephen Altemus praised the team for their “outstanding effort” and called the landing a significant milestone. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson also congratulated the company, calling the event a “triumph” and a “giant leap forward for all of humanity.”

Odysseus launched into space on Feb. 15 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and traveled over 620,000 miles during its six-day journey to the moon. The lander targeted a landing site near the moon’s south pole, where water ice is thought to be abundant in the region’s shadowed craters.

The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, aimed at supporting the development of moon landers by private-sector companies. Intuitive Machines was awarded $118 million by NASA to carry out the moon landing, making it the first successful mission under the program.

Odysseus is carrying a mix of commercial cargo and NASA science instruments, and is expected to collect data on the moon for about a week before lunar night sets in and power is lost. Despite a last-minute issue with the laser instruments, the mission was able to proceed using sensors on one of the NASA science instruments aboard the lander.

The successful landing of Odysseus marks a significant achievement in the realm of space exploration, as it joins an elite club of spacecraft that have made controlled or “soft” landings on the moon.