CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A private lander on Thursday achieved a historic milestone by making the first U.S. touchdown on the moon in more than five decades. However, the mission encountered initial communication challenges, with a weak signal prompting flight controllers to swiftly work on improving contact.
Intuitive Machines, the company behind the craft, confirmed that despite the communication hurdles, the lander had successfully touched down upright. Yet, further details regarding its precise landing site near the moon’s south pole remained undisclosed. The live webcast from the company ended shortly after a solitary, faint signal was detected from the lander.
Mission director Tim Crain affirmed, “What we can confirm, without a doubt, is our equipment is on the surface of the moon,” reflecting the tension in the company’s control center in Houston.
CEO of Intuitive Machines, Steve Altemus, added, “I know this was a nail-biter, but we are on the surface and we are transmitting. Welcome to the moon.”
Data began streaming in approximately two hours post-touchdown, according to a company announcement.
This milestone marks the return of the United States to the lunar surface since NASA’s renowned Apollo missions. Additionally, Intuitive Machines has now become the first private entity to achieve a lunar landing, a feat previously accomplished by only five countries. Last month, another U.S. company, Astrobotic Technology, attempted a similar feat but failed to reach the moon, resulting in a crash back to Earth.
Both Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic Technology are participants in a NASA-supported initiative aimed at advancing lunar exploration and commercialization.
Congratulatory messages poured in swiftly, with Astrobotic expressing, “An incredible achievement. We can’t wait to join you on the lunar surface in the near future,” via X, formerly Twitter.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted, “Intuitive Machines ‘aced the landing of a lifetime.'”
The moments leading up to touchdown were fraught with tension as the lander’s laser navigation system malfunctioned. The flight control team resorted to deploying an experimental NASA laser system as a last-minute solution, necessitating the lander to undertake an additional orbit around the moon.
With the revised plan in place, the lander, named Odysseus, descended from its orbit and successfully targeted a relatively flat area near the south pole amidst the rugged lunar terrain.
Following a nail-biting wait, controllers at the company’s command center finally received a weak signal from the lander approximately 250,000 miles away.
The six-footed carbon fiber and titanium lander, standing at 14 feet tall, carried six experiments for NASA. The space agency allocated $118 million to Intuitive Machines for the construction and execution of the mission, as part of efforts to commercialize lunar deliveries ahead of the anticipated return of astronauts in the coming years.
Intuitive Machines’ achievement contributes to the ongoing global efforts to explore and potentially exploit the resources of the moon. The U.S. last ventured into lunar exploration in 1972 through NASA’s Apollo program. The target landing site for Intuitive Machines was around 186 miles shy of the south pole, chosen for its potential resources such as frozen water.
Besides NASA’s experiments, the lander also carried payloads for Columbia Sportswear, sculptor Jeff Koons, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Si Venus L Peñaflor ay naging editor-in-chief ng Newsworld, isang lokal na pahayagan ng Laguna. Publisher din siya ng Daystar Gazette at Tutubi News Magazine. Siya ay isa ring pintor at doll face designer ng Ninay Dolls, ang unang Manikang Pilipino. Kasali siya sa DesignCrowd sa rank na #305 sa 640,000 graphic designers sa buong daigdig. Kasama din siya sa unang Local TV Broadcast sa Laguna na Beyond Manila. Aktibong kasapi siya ng San Pablo Jaycees Senate bilang isang JCI Senator.
