A probe belonging to the American company “Intuitive Machines” succeeded in landing on the surface of the moon on Thursday, becoming the first American vehicle to land there in more than 50 years, and the first achievement of its kind recorded by a private company.
“We confirm without a doubt that our probe is on the surface of the moon and is sending signals,” said Tim Crane, director of Intuitive Machines, during the company’s live broadcast.
The company then confirmed via the “X” platform that the probe landed “vertically” and began “sending data.”
This landing was recorded at 17:23 pm Houston time in the state of Texas, where the company’s control room is located (23:23 GMT).
The height of the Nova-C lander, which transports scientific equipment for the US Space Agency (NASA), is about four metres. It took off last week from Florida.
The landing process represented the most difficult stage of the mission called “IM-1”.
Lasers that were supposed to provide guidance to the probe malfunctioned, so an alternative solution was relied upon through a NASA instrument on the vehicle that was scheduled to be tested during the mission only.
About ten minutes before landing, significant thrust from the engine allowed Nova-C to slow down to at least 1,800 meters per second.
During the final stage of the landing process, the probe operated completely autonomously.
It is now expected to receive a set of images, including what will be provided by a small vehicle equipped with cameras created by Embry-Riddle University, which specializes in aeronautics. It is assumed that it emerged from “Nova-C” in the last moments to capture the process of landing on the surface of the moon from the outside.
#American #probe #lands #moon