Mission accomplished.
More than fifty years after Apollo 17 (in 1972), the Americans placed a machine on the Moon.
The Nova-C Odysseus moon lander, from the company Intuitive Machines, landed during the night from Thursday to Friday (at 12:23 a.m. Paris time).
It thus became the first private company to achieve such a feat.
“
When
NASA
launched the CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Service) program in 2018, it estimated the chances of overall success of the missions it financed was 50%
,
”
comments Francis Rocard, head of the Solar System exploration program at Cnes, the French space agency.
After the failure last January (
of the Peregrine moon lander developed and operated by the competing company Astrobotic, victim of a dramatic fuel leak after a successful takeoff, Editor's note
), we are in trouble.
»
This program aims to bring about a
“
lunar economy
”,
relying on private companies to stimulate innovation and try to reduce…
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