LA (Los Angeles) : The first lunar lander of American company Intuitive Machines has landed on the Moon. It is the first American spacecraft to land on the lunar surface in more than 50 years. According to NASA, the uncrewed lander named Odysseus landed on the south pole of the Moon at 6:23 pm on Thursday.
The spacecraft was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday last week.
Intuitive Machines has the first robotic flight on the lunar surface, a news agency reports. The mission’s scientific objectives include the study of plume-surface interactions, radio astronomy, and space weather interactions with the Moon’s surface.
According to NASA, it will demonstrate precision landing technologies and communications and navigation node capabilities. NASA is working with several US companies to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative. Before this, the American spacecraft Apollo 17 had last landed on the lunar surface in December 1972.