What to know about today's landing
- The “Odysseus” lunar lander built by Intuitive Machines is expected to touch down on the lunar surface at 6:24 p.m. ET.
- The landing attempt will be livestreamed on NASA TV beginning at 5 p.m. ET.
- The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which the space agency set up to support development of moon landers by private-sector companies.
After tense moments, Intuitive says contact made with lander
It was touch and go for a few moments, but Intuitive said a little after 6:30 p.m. ET that it had mde contact with its lander on the lunar surface.
The robotic spacecraft becomes the first privately built craft to touch down on the lunar surface, as well as the first American vehicle to accomplish the feat in more than 50 years.
Roughly an hour before landing, the company also scrambled to resolve a problem with laser instruments designed to help the spacecraft assess the lunar terrain and find a safe and hazard-free spot to touch down. The laser rangefinders aboard Odysseus were not operable but sensors on one of the NASA science instruments aboard the lander were repurposed instead.
Coverage of the landing has begun on Intuitive Machines' website and on NASA TV. People can watch on either site but the streams are identical.
'The longest 15 seconds'
In the final moments of Odysseus' descent, it may take a bit of time to confirm what exactly happened.
Intuitive Machines said they expect about a 15-second delay as data is relayed back to Earth. In a video published yesterday by the company, Intuitive Machines' Chief Technology Officer, Tim Crain, said it will be a nail-biting finish.
"I can tell you just from doing our simulations, that's the longest 15 seconds you'll ever experience," he said, "as you wait for the final light to turn green to indicate that you've landed on the moon."
Inside the space race back to the moon
The U.S. has ambitions to be the first to get back to the moon. NBC News’ Sam Brock has more on the space race to the lunar surface.
The challenges of landing on the moon
With less than two hours to go before landing, the biggest hurdles are still ahead for Odysseus. But getting to this point has its own challenges, too.
In a video describing the spacecraft's flight path, Intuitive Machines Chief Technology Officer Tim Crain explained how the spacecraft will prepare for its descent to the lunar surface. In particular, Odysseus must complete a burn maneuver on the far side of the moon, where the moon itself blocks direct communication with mission controllers on Earth.
“Once we get around the moon, we have on the day side of the moon the sun heating us from one side and reflected infrared light off the bright moon warming us on the other,” Crain said. “Then we plunge into night and now we’re cold on both sides. It’s very tough.”
Intuitive offers up-close pics of lunar surface
An image taken by the Odysseus’ Terrain Relative Navigation camera of the Bel’kovich K crater on the moon’s northern equatorial highlands as the lunar lander prepares for its landing.
Creator of NASA’s lunar cargo program explains ‘shots on goal’ approach
Thomas Zurbuchen led the creation of NASA’s $2.6 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services program about six years ago, out of which Intuitive Machines’ won an $118 million contract to carry payloads for the IM-1 mission.
“Coming up with Commercial Lunar Payload Services, I basically felt that the moon as a planetary body had not been focused on enough. The question was: Can we [land cargo missions on the moon] at a rate that is substantially lower in cost than the half-a-billion to a billion dollars that it would take if we did it on the inside of the agency?” Zurbuchen told CNBC.
This NASA program is about tolerating failures and trying to help companies make as many attempts as possible, as frequently as possible, while the agency focuses its own efforts instead on its crewed Artemis missions.
“We should give it a few shots on goal to just make sure it can work at the 50% level, or find out if that is a lot less likely,” Zurbuchen said.
Meanwhile, in rocket news...
Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, showed off its new rocket today. The booster, dubbed New Glenn, was rolled out and raised into vertical position at Launch Complex 36 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The rocket will now undergo a week of testing at the launchpad.
New Glenn was named for astronaut John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit Earth. Blue Origin has yet to announce a date for New Glenn's debut launch, but it is expected to be sometime this year.
Intuitive Machines stock has surged 300%. How Wall Street reads the moon-fueled rally.
Much like Intuitive Machines’ spacecraft, its stock has been flying to the moon over the past week.
In a little over a month since hitting all-time lows, and with its IM-1 mission on the way to the lunar surface, shares of Intuitive Machines have climbed more than 300% since early January. It’s a rally that Wall Street analysts describe as fueled by retail investors’ excitement for the space company’s progress toward an unprecedented goal.
The Texas-based lunar company’s stock, with the apt ticker of “LUNR,” now trades for about $9 per share, a far cry from January lows of closer to $2. At one point this week, as IM-1 progressed through milestones ahead of its landing attempt — the stock reached over $13 in trading.
Part of Odysseus' payload: A bit of art
Jeff Koons, an American artist best known for his oversized sculptures of everday objects (like massive balloon animals with bright mirror finishes), has some art aboard today's lander.
A Koons piece, "Moon Phases," is a piece of artwork that features a collection of 125 moon sculptures that are aboard Odysseus and will be displayed on the lunar surface.