By Denise Chow—
NBC News
An unmanned spacecraft will attempt a historic lunar landing this Thursday to become the first spacecraft from a private company to land on the lunar surface and the first American probe to do so since NASA's Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
The lander built by Intuitive Machines was due to touch the lunar surface at 4:24 p.m. (East Coast Time), the Houston, Texas-based company estimated earlier this week.
But the company reported on the social network
The Nova-C lander, nicknamed Odysseus, launched on February 15 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
At 14 feet tall, it traveled over six days more than 620,000 miles to reach the Moon.
A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with the Nova-C mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on February 15, 2024. Gregg Newton / AFP - Getty Images file
This mission is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Cargo Services program, created by the space administration to support the development of lunar landings by private companies.
Over time, the agency plans to contract with these companies to transport cargo and scientific instruments to the lunar surface as part of ambitions to land astronauts on the Moon.
NASA awarded Intuitive Machines a $118 million contract for this moon landing.
Odysseus also carries
commercial cargo and NASA scientific instruments on its journey.
In January another company attempted to send a lander to the Moon under the same NASA program, but failed.
The spacecraft, built by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology, suffered a breakdown shortly after launch that forced the company to scrap the entire mission.
Intuitive Machines said Wednesday in X that Odysseus “continues to enjoy excellent health,” adding that the landing attempt will be the spacecraft’s “most difficult challenge to date.”
Upon descending to the lunar surface, Odysseus will search for a landing site around a crater called Malapert A, near the south pole.
That region has long been a temptation for scientists, since water ice is believed to be relatively abundant in the permanently shadowed craters.
If the landing is successful, Odysseus will go down in history as the first commercial spacecraft on the Moon.
Intuitive Machines will also join an elite club: only the space agencies of the United States, the former Soviet Union, China, India and Japan have successfully carried out a controlled moon landing.