As previously reported, this is the first private spacecraft to land on the surface of the Moon and the first from the United States to achieve this since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
CEO Stephen Altemus of Intuitive Machines, based in Houston, the company that designed and operates the lander, stated that the vehicle is believed to have tipped over on its side on a rock after landing.
The Odysseus lunar lander captured a wide-field image of the Schomberger crater on the Moon on Thursday, at an altitude of about 10 km. (Photo: Intuitive Machines).
However, Altemus mentioned that Odysseus “is stable near or at our intended landing site” close to the Malapert A crater in the Moon’s southern polar region.
Altemus stated: “We have contact with the lander” and are sending commands to the vehicle, adding that teams are working to obtain the first images from the landing site on the Moon.
A brief status update on the mission was posted on the company’s website earlier on Friday, describing Odysseus as “alive and well.”
Mission Director Tim Crain of Intuitive Machines stated that the spacecraft, which used liquid methane and liquid oxygen propulsion for the first time in space, has “performed perfectly” during its flight to the Moon. Altemus noted that the spacecraft is properly recharging from solar energy and is charged at 100%.
The Odysseus lander is carrying a set of scientific experiments for NASA and several commercial instruments. It is designed to operate for 7 days on solar power before the Sun sets at the landing site in the polar region.
