A pioneering lunar lander has sent home its first images from the final frontier.
Intuitive Machines' Odysseus robotic spacecraft snapped some selfies with Earth in the background shortly after its February 15 launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket — and we can all check them out.
“Intuitive Machines successfully transmitted images of the first IM-1 mission to Earth on February 16, 2024. The images were taken shortly after separation from SpaceX's second stage on Intuitive Machines' first flight to the Moon under NASA's CLPS Initiative,” Houston wrote. The company, which is based on Saturday (February 17) in A Share on X Which shared four of the photos.
Related: Missions to the Moon: Past, Present and Future
CLPS is the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which places the agency's science instruments on special robotic lunar landers like Odysseus. These instruments are designed to collect data that will help NASA's Artemis program, which aims to establish a manned base near the moon's south pole by the end of the 2020s.
Odysseus carries six NASA experiments and technology demonstrations, along with six special payloads, on its current IM-1 mission.
IM-1 was not CLPS's first attempt to get off the ground. That distinction goes to the maiden flight of Peregrine, a lunar lander built by Astrobotic of Pittsburgh, which lifted off last month aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket.
The launch went well, but Peregrine suffered a fuel leak shortly after separating from the rocket's upper stage. The lander was unable to reach the Moon, so its operators directed it to a controlled destruction in Earth's atmosphere on January 18.
Things were going better for Odysseus. Intuitive Machines said the lander is intact and communicating with mission control as it heads toward the moon for a planned landing attempt on February 22.
Odysseus' various systems are functioning normally, including its engine, which has just passed a critical test in deep space.
“Intuitive Machines flight controllers successfully fired the first liquid methane and liquid oxygen engine into space, completing mission IM-1 engine operation. This engine firing included a complete burnout of the main propulsion engine and lowering the throttle level needed for the lunar landing. ” The company said in X post on Friday Evening (February 16).
Success in the next landing attempt will be historic. No private spacecraft has landed quietly on the moon's surface.
Incidentally, Odysseus' mixture of liquid oxygen and liquid methane is also used in SpaceX's Raptor engines, which power the company's giant new Starship rocket. Starship, which SpaceX is developing to transport humans to the Moon and Mars, is now being prepared for its third test flight, which could take place in the coming weeks.
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