The Nova-C lunar lander is scheduled to reach the lunar surface on Thursday. If all goes according to plan, this will be the first American landing on a Silver Globe in more than 50 years and the first in history using a private spacecraft.
Odysseus, as the lander is called, began its journey toward Earth's natural moon a week ago. It was launched into space aboard a Falcon 9 rocket that took off from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
On Wednesday, the lander reached lunar orbit, Intuitive Machines, the company that built the machine, announced on social media.
According to the plan, Odysseus will land on Thursday in Malaparte Crater near the south pole of the Moon at 11:49 pm our time.
Last week, the probe sent back the first images from space. The device manages to capture the globe from an interesting perspective.
A historic attempt
If successful, it will be the first controlled landing on the surface of the Silver Globe by an American spacecraft since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. It will also be the first ever landing on the moon by a private company and the US space agency. Firstly within the framework of NASA's Artemis program, thanks to which the United States wants to return astronauts to the Earth's natural satellite.
The mission, named IM-1, comes about a month after Astrobotic Technology's lander suffered a failure on its way to the moon. Peregrine, as it was called, was launched into orbit on January 8 by a Vulcan rocket. This was the third time that a commercial landing on the moon had failed.
Main image source: Reuters/NASA
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