Intuitive Machines’ private IM-1 lander, known as Odysseus, landed on the moon Thursday evening after experiencing communication glitches. Intuitive Machine’s operation marks the first time the United States has landed on the moon in over 50 years.
The New York Times reported that the moon landing was a joint effort led by Intuitive Machines, SpaceX, and NASA. According to The New York Times, after SpaceX Rocket 9 launched the lunar lander into orbit on a “trajectory toward the moon” last week, communication glitches led to significant concerns that the lunar lander had crashed prior to its successful landing.
In a live webcast from Intuitive Machine’s control center in Houston, Texas, Mission Director Tim Crain announced, “What we can confirm, without a doubt, is our equipment is on the surface of the moon.”
“I know this was a nail-biter, but we are on the surface, and we are transmitting,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus added. “Welcome to the moon.”
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, NASA announced that the spacecraft landed on the moon at 6:23 p.m. Thursday evening. NASA explained that the scientific instruments aboard the lander will “prepare us for future human exploration of the Moon under #Artemis.”
According to Britannica, Thursday’s moon landing was the first time the U.S. landed on the moon since the successful Apollo 17 mission that was completed by a NASA astronaut crew in 1972.
In a video message posted on X, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson noted that Intuitive Machines is also the first private business to successfully execute a landing on the moon, which is something that only five countries in the world had previously done.
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“Today, for the first time in half a century, America has returned to the Moon,” Nelson wrote in a post accompanying the video announcement. “On the eighth day of a quarter-million-mile voyage, @Int_Machines aced the landing of a lifetime. What a feat for IM, @SpaceX & @NASA. What a triumph for humanity. Odysseus has taken the Moon.”
Nelson congratulated Intuitive Machines, SpaceX, and NASA for working together to make the Odysseus landing a success. Despite the initial communication glitch that threatened to derail the operation, Nelson described Thursday’s landing as a “triumph.”
He added, “This feat is a giant leap forward for all of humanity.”
