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The lander, nicknamed “Odysseus,” is about the size of an old-fashioned British phone booth, has aluminum legs, weighs about 700 kilograms and can carry about 130 kilograms of cargo.
© -/Intuitive Machines via AP/dpa
Missions from five countries have made it to the moon, the USA has even brought people to Earth's satellite - but a commercial landing has only now been successful.
Houston - For the first time in the history of space travel, a commercial mission has successfully landed on the moon.
The “Nova-C” lander from the US company Intuitive Machines touched down overnight in the southern region of the Earth's satellite, as the US space agency Nasa announced.
It is the first - albeit unmanned - US moon landing since the legendary Apollo missions more than 50 years ago.
“We can confirm without a doubt that our equipment is on the surface of the moon and that we are transmitting,” it said in a live stream from the Intuitive Machines control center around 20 minutes after the land time at 00:23 German time.
“Houston, “Odysseus” has found a new home.” “Odysseus” - or “Ody” for short - is the lander's nickname.
“What a triumph for humanity”
“Today America returned to the moon for the first time in half a century,” said NASA CEO Bill Nelson.
“On the eighth day of a quarter-million-mile journey, Intuitive Machines landed with flying colors.
What a success for Intutive Machines, SpaceX and NASA.
What a triumph for humanity.
Odysseus conquered the moon.”
It was initially not clear what condition “Nova-C” was in after landing.
The control center said that initially only weak signals were received.
They are working on getting stronger signals and finding out more about the exact condition of the lander.
Shortly afterwards it was said that - after some communication problems had been solved - it could be confirmed that the lander was upright and had started transmitting data.
Research equipment and 125 miniature sculptures on board
The “Nova-C” lander is about the size of an old-fashioned British telephone booth, has aluminum legs, weighs around 700 kilograms and can carry around 130 kilograms of cargo.
NASA has used a large part of it with research equipment and other material, while commercial companies have secured the rest for their projects.
The US artist Jeff Koons also sent along 125 miniature sculptures made of stainless steel.
There was still one hurdle to overcome before landing: a laser system that was supposed to help “Odysseus” land safely did not work.
The scientists from NASA and Intuitive Machines then spontaneously decided to use a similar NASA system on board the lander, which had actually only been sent for testing in space and not for actual use during landing.
The means of transport was a rocket from Elon Musk's SpaceX
“Nova-C” had launched around a week earlier from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida.
The means of transport was a “Falcon 9” rocket from technology billionaire Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX.
The mission is part of NASA's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program.
With this program, the US space agency wants to collect as much knowledge as possible on its own way back to the moon comparatively cheaply and efficiently by awarding contracts for lunar landings to private companies and working with them.
A total of around 2.6 billion dollars (around 2.4 billion euros) is budgeted for the “CLPS” program by 2028.
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Intuitive Machines received around $77 million for the “Nova-C” mission.
The company, based in Houston, Texas, was founded in 2013 by, among others, US-Iranian entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian, who is also behind the company Axiom Space, which has just sent astronauts to the International Space Station on a commercial mission.
Moon landings often go wrong
Moon landings are considered to be technically extremely demanding and often go wrong.
This year alone, two planned landings have turned out differently than hoped: The US company Astrobotic, based in Pittsburgh, sent off the “Peregrine” capsule in January - also part of NASA’s “CLPS” program.
Shortly after takeoff, however, there were problems due to a malfunction in the propulsion system.
The engineers were able to temporarily stabilize the capsule, but the goal of landing on the moon had to be abandoned.
A few days later, “Peregrine” burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Shortly afterwards, the lander “SLIM” (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) from the Japanese space agency Jaxa touched down gently on the moon, but initially had problems with the energy supply.
“SLIM” was only able to go into operation after days of power failure.
This makes Japan the fifth country - after the USA, Russia, China and India - to successfully complete an unmanned landing on the moon.
Last April, a Japanese company with a similar mission failed.
dpa