The Odysseus Spacecraft: The First Civilian Mission to Successfully Land on the Moon

Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lander has landed on the moon. This is the first time a private company has landed a spacecraft on the moon, a welcome success after a string of recent high-profile landing failures by other companies.

The Odysseus spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket on February 14 for the flight, called the IM-1 mission. It entered lunar orbit on February 21st and landed near the moon's south pole on February 22nd.

Live footage from air traffic controllers became tense as the scheduled landing time passed without any contact from the lander. Finally, minutes after Odysseus was scheduled to land, Tim Crane, mission director in Intuitive Machines' mission control room, said, “We're receiving a signal. It's faint, but it's definitely there.'' “I'm doing it.”

The signal indicated that the spacecraft had landed on the moon, but the state of the spacecraft is still unknown. However, the landing was successful. “We know this has been a pain, but we're on the surface,” said Stephen Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines. “Welcome to the moon”

Before this landing, three other companies attempted to send landers to the moon. SpaceIL's Beresheet spacecraft was launched in 2019, and ispace's Hakuto-R mission was launched in 2022, but both crash-landed and were destroyed.

Astrobotic's Peregrine lander didn't even get very far after launching in January. A fuel leak forced the operators to return to Earth to burn up in the atmosphere. The success of the IM-1 has brought Intuitive Machines into an elite club. To date, only the national space agencies of the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India, and Japan have successfully landed on the moon.

Now that we have landed safely, we can begin the second part of the IM-1 mission. Odysseus carried six NASA payloads and six commercial payloads to the Moon. Some of these already serve that purpose, such as landing aids and cameras to take pictures of the landing. Some people have succeeded simply by reaching the moon. Perhaps most notable is artist Jeff Koons' collection of his 125 small sculptures. Other instruments are also now beginning their missions, including instruments that will measure how the moon's surrounding environment affects its surface.

The IM-1 mission is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, through which government contracts are awarded to private companies to build spaceflight capabilities through public-private partnerships. Three more moon landings are planned through CLPS in 2024, including an Intuitive Machines mission to harvest water ice from the moon's south pole.