Private US moon lander launched half-century after last Apollo lunar mission
- If successful, Odysseus could become the first private mission – called IM-1 – to land intact on the lunar surface
- It would also be the first US moon landing since the final mission of the Apollo programme more than 50 years ago
A moon lander built by Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines was launched from Florida early on Thursday on a mission to conduct the first US lunar touchdown in more than a half-century and the first by a privately owned spacecraft.
The company’s Nova-C lander, dubbed Odysseus, lifted off shortly after 1am EST (2pm Hong Kong time) atop a Falcon 9 rocket flown by Elon Musk’ SpaceX from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral.
A live Nasa-SpaceX online video feed showed the two-stage, 25-storey 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, previously set for Wednesday morning, was postponed for 24 hours because of irregular temperatures detected in liquid methane used in the lander’s propulsion system. SpaceX said the issue was later resolved.
Although considered an Intuitive Machines mission, the IM-1 flight is carrying six Nasa payloads of instruments designed to gather data about the lunar environment ahead of Nasa’s planned return of astronauts to the moon later this decade.