A moon lander developed by Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines was launched from Florida early Thursday on a mission to execute the first U.S. lunar touchdown in more than 50 years and the first by a privately owned spacecraft.
The company’s Nova-C lander, known as Odysseus, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral shortly after 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT) atop a Falcon 9 rocket flown by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
A live NASA–SpaceX online video feed captured the two-stage, 25-story rocket roaring off the launch pad and streaking into the dark sky over Florida’s Atlantic coast, trailed by a fiery yellowish plume of exhaust.
The launch, originally scheduled for Wednesday AM, was postponed for 24 hours due to unusual temperatures in the liquid methane utilized in the lander’s propulsion system. SpaceX stated that the issue was later resolved.
Although dubbed an Intuitive Machines mission, the IM-1 flight is carrying six NASA payloads of experiments designed to gather data on the lunar environment ahead of NASA’s planned return of astronauts to the moon later this decade.
Thursday’s launch came a month after the lunar lander of another private firm, Astrobotic Technology, experienced a propulsion system leak on its trip to the moon shortly after being placed in orbit on Jan. 8 by a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket making its inaugural flight.
Peregrine lander crash marks third private lunar landing fail
The failure of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander, which was also carrying NASA payloads to the moon, was the third time a private business had failed to execute a “soft landing” on the lunar surface, following unsuccessful attempts by Israeli and Japanese companies.
Those disasters demonstrated the difficulties NASA confronts as it relies more largely on the commercial sector than in the past to achieve its spaceflight ambitions.
Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C vehicle, a hexagonal cylinder with four legs, is scheduled to arrive in crater Malapert A near the moon’s south pole on February 22 after a week-long mission.
If successful, the voyage will be the first controlled fall to the lunar surface by a US spacecraft since the final Apollo crewed moon mission in 1972, and the first by a private company.
The feat would also be the first mission to the lunar surface under NASA’s Artemis moon program, as the United States races to return astronauts to Earth’s natural satellite before China lands its crewed spacecraft there.
IM-1 is the latest test of NASA’s approach of paying for the use of spacecraft developed and operated by private businesses to reduce the cost of the Artemis missions, which are intended to serve as precursors to human exploration of Mars.
Apollo era saw NASA owning rockets, a stark contrast to today’s commercial partnerships
In contrast, during the Apollo era, NASA purchased rockets and other technology from the commercial sector but owned and controlled them itself.
Last month, NASA said that it was delaying its target date for the first crewed Artemis lunar landing from 2025 to late 2026, while China has stated that it was aiming for 2030.
Small landers, such as Nova-C, are scheduled to arrive first, carrying instruments to thoroughly investigate the lunar landscape, its resources, and any risks. Odysseus will study space weather interactions with the lunar surface, radio astronomy, precise landing technology, and navigation.
Intuitive Machine’s IM-2 mission is set to land at the lunar south pole in 2024, followed by an IM-3 mission later that year with many small rovers.
Japan became the fifth country to put a lander on the moon last month when its space agency JAXA successfully landed its SLIM probe with an extraordinarily accurate “pinpoint” touchdown. Last year, India became the fourth country to land on the moon, following Russia’s failed attempt the same month.
The United States, the former Soviet Union, and China are the only countries that have successfully completed soft lunar landings. China achieved a world first in 2019 by landing on the far side of the moon.