US lands on moon for first time in 52 years with spacecraft the size of a red phone box
A private, unmanned spacecraft has landed on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
Intuitive Machines’s Nova-C Odysseus lander touched down on the Moon at 23.23pm UK time on Thursday.
The £93m landing was announced by Nasa, who took to social media site X, to say “Your order was delivered… to the Moon!”, after the US space agency helped with its landing.
Intuitive Machines said its original laser instrument, which it planned to rely on for guidance during descent stopped working an hour before landing. Nasa stepped in to assist at the last minute, providing a backup instrument.
It said on X, “after troubleshooting communications, flight controllers have confirmed Odysseus is upright and starting to send data. Right now, we are working to downlink the first images from the lunar surface.”
Odysseus is a cylinder about 13ft tall and 5ft wide – about the size of a British phone box – and weighs 675kg.
It is part of Nasa’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. It said on Twitter its “uncrewed lunar lander landed at 6:23pm ET (2323 UTC), bringing NASA science to the Moon’s surface. These instruments will prepare us for future human exploration of the Moon under Artemis”.
Nasa administrator Bill Nelson described the mission as a “triumph” and a “giant leap forward for all of humanity”.
He said: “Today, for the first time in more than a half-century, the US has returned to the Moon.
“Today, for the first time in the history of humanity, a commercial company – an American company – launched and led the voyage up there.
“And today is a day that shows the power and promise on Nasa’s commercial partnerships.
“Congratulations to everyone involved in this great and daring quest at Intuitive Machines, SpaceX, and right here at Nasa.
“What a triumph – Odysseus has taken the Moon.
“This feat is a giant leap forward for all of humanity. Stay tuned.”
It comes six weeks after another US spacecraft, Peregrine, failed to touch down after a fuel leak.
You can watch the landing process here:
With contribution from Press Association