Odysseus moon landing: Six things to know about private lander's ‘nail-biting’ descent on lunar surface

Here are six interesting facts about Odysseus' 'new home'

The Odysseus, a robotic lunar lander developed by Intuitive Machines, a Houston-based company, has made history by becoming the first private spacecraft to land on the moon. This marks the first US moon landing in over 50 years. Despite facing challenges during its journey to the lunar surface, the mission was ultimately successful, leading CEO Stephen Altemus to describe it as "a nail-biter." Here are the most interesting facts about Odysseus and its "new home".

1. Odysseus first US-made spacecraft to land on moon in half a century

Odie, also known as IM-1, is the Odysseus lunar lander that has made history by being the first American spacecraft to land on the moon in five decades. As reported by its creator, Intuitive Machines, the lander is in an upright position and has begun transmitting data, per CNN. Intuitive Machines posted an image on X and wrote, "Odysseus’ Terrain Relative Navigation camera captured this image of the Bel’kovich K crater in the Moon’s northern equatorial highlands. It is an approximate 50 km diameter crater with mountains in the center, made when the crater was formed (21FEB2024 1750 CST)."

2. Odysseus lander paves way for NASA's 2026 crewed mission to moon's south pole

The mission of the Odysseus lander is aimed at evaluating the environmental conditions of the moon's south pole. This is in preparation for NASA's upcoming plan to send a manned mission to the same location by the end of 2026.

3. First commercial spacecraft to land on the moon

Odie marks its place in history as the inaugural commercial spacecraft to land on the Moon. This significant achievement follows a previous unsuccessful attempt by a US lunar lander last month.

4. Odysseus reportedly outperforms SLIM

Intuitive Machines, the company responsible for the Odysseus lunar landing mission, has confirmed that the spacecraft has successfully landed upright and is transmitting data. This achievement is significant and places Odysseus in a potentially more advantageous position than Japan's SLIM Moon Sniper mission. Although SLIM was initially successful in making a soft landing, it was later discovered to have landed in such a way that its solar panels were misdirected, leading to a rapid power loss.

5.  Odysseus success to help prepare for future human exploration of the moon

NASA responded to the moon mission on social media with a playful comment, stating, "Your order was delivered… to the Moon!" (Intutive Machines') uncrewed lunar lander landed at 6:23pm ET (2323 UTC), bringing NASA science to the Moon's surface. These instruments will prepare us for future human exploration of the Moon under #Artemis," the space agency said on X.

6. Odysseus faced problems on its lunar journey

Prior to its moon landing, Odysseus encountered challenges that resulted in a delay of its anticipated touchdown time. The craft's laser navigation system experienced a failure just hours before the landing, as reported by The Associated Press. Consequently, the flight control team at Intuitive Machines had to depend on an experimental laser system from NASA.