US achieves first moon landing in 50 years

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Last Updated25/02/2024

Fifty-two years after the last successful Apollo mission, a US-made spacecraft, Odysseus, landed on the Moon on February 23.
This marked the advent of private space companies on the lunar surface.

Odysseus, developed by Intuitive Machines, lifted off on a Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX, carrying six NASA payloads to the Moon.
The spacecraft carried six NASA payloads to the Moon.
The lander module, Nova-C, became the second to land in the Moon’s south pole region, following Chandrayaan-3 last year.
Funding: For this mission, NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118m under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme.

It was named Odysseus after a contest among employees of Intuitive Machines of Houston, the company in charge of the mission.
The name is inspired from the journey of the hero of the ancient Greek epic poem "Odyssey”.
Odyssey's journey serves as an analogy for the long and challenging nature of the lunar mission.

It signifies a new phase in lunar exploration focused on establishing infrastructure and technology to support long-term human presence.
It aims to lay the groundwork for exploiting lunar resources and fostering sustainable exploration.
- This is in contrast to past moon landings, which were primarily scientific endeavours.
This information will help evaluate factors such as the quantity of water present and the accessibility of this vital resource.
This is significant as NASA prepares to send a crewed mission in September 2026 with Artemis III.

Under CLPS, so far, at least 14 private companies have been contracted to carry NASA payloads to the Moon.
Objective: To create the market and technology ecosystem in the private space industry with respect to science and technology needs of lunar exploration.