Odysseus is cruising in orbit 92km away from the moon’s surface.
If successful, it will be 52 years since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The lunar lander ‘Odysseus’ launched by an American private space company has successfully entered lunar orbit and is about to land.
Intuitive Machines, a Texas-based space company, announced on the 21st (local time) that the unmanned lunar lander ‘Odysseus’ (Nova-C IM-1) has entered a circular orbit 92 km from the lunar surface and is cruising. .
Odysseus entered lunar orbit by burning its central engine for 6 minutes and 48 seconds, and is scheduled to attempt a lunar landing at 5:49 PM on the 22nd (7:49 AM on the 23rd, Korean time), Eastern Standard Time (EST). .
If successful, Odysseus will become the first American spacecraft to land on the moon in 52 years since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. It is also the first lunar lander launched by a private company.
Odysseus’ landing site is the crater ‘Malaffert A’, 297km from the moon’s south pole. This place attracted the attention of scientists as it was known to have relatively abundant ice in the crater.
Odysseus was launched at 1:05 am on the 15th on a Space
It is a hexagonal cylindrical structure with a height of approximately 4.2m and a width of 1.5m, and is connected to six landing legs.
The weight reaches 1.9 tons at the time of launch. It is equipped with a laser retroreflection array, lidar device, stereo camera, and low-frequency wireless receiver. It is known that Jeff Koons’ art project is also included.
Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander project is part of the ‘Civil Lunar Payload Service’ (CLPS) sub-project of ‘Artemis’, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) manned lunar exploration program.
NASA ultimately aims to build a base camp on the moon, and is attempting to transport cargo and scientific equipment to the lunar surface with a private exploration vehicle through CLPS.
NASA has postponed the launch plan for ‘Artemis 2’, which was scheduled for the end of this year, to September 2025, and the ‘Artemis 3’ plan, which would land four astronauts on the moon, to September 2026.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.