The Odysseus lunar lander, developed by Houston-based company Intuitive Machines, landed on the surface of the moon Thursday – and it was streamed live for the public.
The first U.S. commercial moon lander, Odysseus – also known by its nickname “Odie” – touched down at 6:23 p.m. ET near a crater called Malapert A in the south pole region of the moon. The company said the lunar lander transmitted a weak signal back.
Tension mounted in the company’s command center in Houston, as controllers awaited a signal from the spacecraft some 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) away, which arrived about 10 minutes later.
“We’re evaluating how we can refine that signal,” said mission director Tim Crain. “But we can confirm, without a doubt, that our equipment is on the surface of the moon.”
“Your order was delivered… to the Moon,” NASA wrote on social media Thursday afternoon.
NASA said the instruments will prepare for future human exploration of the moon.
Previously, the U.S. had not returned to the moon’s surface since the Apollo program ended more than 50 years ago. Only five countries — the U.S., Russia, China, India and Japan — have completed a lunar landing and no private business had done so.
Intuitive Machines was striving to become the first private business to successfully pull off a lunar landing. Another company gave it a shot last month, but never made it to the moon, and the lander crashed back to Earth.
Where Odysseus touched down and what was on board
Odysseus passes over the near side of the Moon after entering lunar orbit insertion on February 21. (Intuitive Machines / NASA)
Intuitive Machines aimed to put its 14-foot tall, six-legged lander down just 186 miles shy of the moon’s south pole, equivalent to landing within Antarctica on Earth.
Intuitive Machines nicknamed its lander after Homer’s hero in “The Odyssey.”
“Godspeed, Odysseus. Now let’s go make history,” said Trent Martin, vice president of space systems.
Breaking down NASA’s Lunar Landing mission
On Wednesday morning, a robotic lunar lander launched by a Houston company got closer to reaching the moon. On Thursday, it is scheduled to touch down on the moon. If all goes well, it will become the first private spacecraft ever to make a soft landing there and the first American mission to arrive there since Apollo 17 in 1972.
NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to get its latest set of experiments to the moon. The company also drummed up its own customers, including Columbia Sportswear, which was testing a metallic jacket fabric as a thermal insulator on the lander, and sculptor Jeff Koons, who was sending up 125 inch-sized moon figurines in a see-through cube.
The lander also was carrying Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Eaglecam, which would snap pictures of the lander as they both descend.
The spacecraft will cease operations after a week on the surface.
SpaceX launches Odysseus
SpaceX successfully launches IM-1 moon mission
After scrubbing a Valentine’s Day launch, SpaceX was able to send up Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission, with the hope that it will be the first private company to land on the moon.
Odysseus launched at 1:05 a.m. on Feb. 15 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
RELATED: SpaceX launches ‘Odysseus’ lunar lander, aiming for historic US moon mission
The Odysseus lunar lander was dispatched with it to the moon, some 230,000 miles away.
NASA’s first entry in its commercial lunar delivery service stumbled shortly after liftoff in early January. A ruptured fuel tank and massive leak caused the spacecraft to bypass the moon and come tearing back through the atmosphere 10 days after launching, breaking apart and burning up over the Pacific.
This story was reported from Los Angeles. Kelly Hayes, The Associated Press contributed.
