Odysseus became the first private probe to land on the Moon last Thursday. The American spacecraft experienced an eventful descent, but its mission was deemed a "success" The probe will be mothballed for two or three weeks, after the passage of the lunar night.
NASA wants to explore the lunar south pole before sending astronauts there as part of its Artemis program. The mission was largely set up thanks to funding from NASA, which had commissioned Intuitive Machines to transport six scientific instruments to the Moon.