Following a less-than-perfect touchdown, the Odysseus lander has been spotted from lunar orbit while lying on its side on the surface of the Moon. The lunar lander also beamed back its first images from the Moon as it fights to stay alive before it runs out of power.
The SLIM lunar lander unexpectedly sprung back to life after hibernating during the freezing lunar night, sending a signal back to Earth more than a month after ending up face down on the Moon.
Things were looking good for Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lunar lander, which made a soft touchdown on the Moon on Thursday and became the first American lunar lander since Apollo in 1972. But on Friday evening, NASA and the private Houston-based company reported that Odie appeared to have landed askew and may be…
Intuitive Machines’ private lander stumbled on its way down to the lunar surface and is possibly leaning over on a rock on the Moon. The vehicle is still operational and flight engineers are working to gather more data on its less-than-ideal position, the company said.
Intuitive Machines landed its Odysseus spacecraft on the Moon on Thursday at 6:23 p.m. ET, becoming the first private company to pull off a soft landing on the lunar surface.
After an eight-day journey through space, Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission is ready to attempt a potentially historic landing on the surface of the Moon. Odysseus will try for a lunar touchdown on Thursday at 6:24 p.m. ET near the Malapert A crater in the Moon’s South Pole region.
Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander has begun its eight-day voyage to the Moon. The mission is fraught with peril, as every previous attempt by private companies to land softly on the Moon has ended in failure. Here’s what needs to go right for this Houston-based company to enter into the history books.
The H3 rocket—11 years in the making—is set for its second launch, following a flubbed debut in March 2023. Japan urgently needs the rocket to succeed, with a second failure risking further delays and monumental headaches for Japan’s space program.
The 46-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft is on the fritz again, and this time it may be critical. As one engineer said, “this is, by far, the most serious since I’ve been project manager.” Here are our top science stories from this week.
Humanity’s most distant spacecraft is glitching out—again—and engineers are having quite a difficult time solving the problem. Voyager 1, what are we going to do with you?
