bot everything went smoothly with the first successful private moon landing on Friday. The commercial lander nicknamed “Odysseus” apparently tipped over when it touched down on the lunar surface and is lying on its side. One of the legs probably got caught during the landing maneuver – and Nova-C then fell over, said the head of the responsible US company Intuitive Machines, Steve Altemus, at a press conference.
Altemus was nevertheless optimistic: The batteries would be charged via solar panels, and most of the devices would be on the side of the lander facing away from the ground. “We collect data,” Altemus said. The vehicle touched down near the planned landing site on the lunar south pole and was stable.
Only a payload with an art object was attached to the side facing the ground, said Altemus. The US artist Jeff Koons sent 125 miniature stainless steel sculptures – called “Moon Phases” – on a journey to the moon.
A selfie with a wide-angle camera: The lunar lander Odysseus on its landing approach.
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Image: Reuters
Odysseus reached his destination in the southern region of the Earth's satellite on Friday night. Initially it was said that the lander landed upright on the lunar surface. This presumably incorrect assumption comes from sensors in the fuel tanks, Altemus now said.
It is hoped that NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft will take a picture of the lander this weekend, Altemus said. You can then determine the exact position and orientation of the device.
It is the first time in half a century that a US lander has landed on the moon. Odysseus is about the size of an old-fashioned British phone booth, has aluminum legs, weighs around 700 kilograms and can carry around 130 kilograms of cargo. NASA has allocated a large part of it with research equipment and other material, while commercial companies have secured the rest for their projects.
The lander had launched around a week earlier from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida on board a Falcon 9 rocket from the space company SpaceX. The mission is part of NASA's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program. With this program, the US space agency wants to collect as much knowledge as possible on its own way back to the moon comparatively cheaply and efficiently by awarding contracts for lunar landings to private companies and working with them.
Moon landings are considered to be technically extremely demanding and often go wrong. This year alone, two planned landings have turned out differently than hoped.
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