Houston, Texas – The Houston-based company, Intuitive Machines, prepared its Odysseus lander for a groundbreaking moon landing today. This mission marked the first U.S.-built spacecraft to achieve a moon landing in over 50 years, as well as the first ever by a private company.

After navigating into orbit around the moon, the Odysseus lander was set to make a dramatic descent, with its main engine igniting to lower its orbit and position it near the landing site, approximately 186 miles from the moon’s south pole. Equipped with on-board cameras and lasers, the spacecraft was programmed to scan the lunar surface for landmarks, guiding its trajectory during the descent.

As the main engine was expected to ignite again at an altitude of about 18 miles, the spacecraft would transition from a horizontal orientation to a vertical one, descending at a speed of just under 4 mph for the final 10 minutes of the descent. The deployment of an innovative camera package, known as “EagleCam,” built by students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, would capture the final descent from the side, while NASA cameras on board the spacecraft would capture images of the ground below.

A successful lunar landing would represent a significant milestone, as it would be the first U.S.-built spacecraft to achieve this feat since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, and the first by a privately-built spacecraft. Intuitive Machines’ mission came after a series of unsuccessful private moon ventures, including a mission by Astrobotic, and missions by Israel and Japan which ended in failure.

The Odysseus lander carried an array of NASA instruments and commercial payloads, including small moon sculptures by artist Jeff Koons, proof-of-concept cloud storage technology, and a small astronomical telescope. These experiments were designed to gather data that will be crucial for future moon missions, as well as other deep space voyages. Although the lander was expected to operate on the lunar surface for about a week, it was not designed to withstand the ultra-cold lunar night.

This mission, funded in part by NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, aimed to pave the way for new technologies and data collection needed for future moon missions, including those planned by NASA’s Artemis astronauts near the moon’s south pole later this decade.

Overall, Intuitive Machines’ historic moon landing attempt, and the technologies and data gathered through this mission, mark a significant step in the advancement of space exploration, paving the way for future lunar and deep space missions.