The moon lander dubbed Odysseus is “alive and well” but resting on its side a day after its white-knuckle touchdown as the first private spacecraft ever to reach the lunar surface, and the first from the U.S. since 1972, the company behind the vehicle said on Friday. Houston-based Intuitive Machines (LUNR.O) said its analysis of the six-legged craft’s data suggested it tripped over one of its landing feet during its final descent and fell onto a rocky area in the lunar south pole region near a crater called Malapert A.
The company said engineers detected the glitch by chance hours before landing, thanks to luck. A switch on Odysseus’s laser-based range finders had yet to be flipped before it blasted off from Florida last week. That meant the system couldn’t activate in space to improve the lander’s navigation sensors. Luckily, the engineers had a backup to improvise a fix — and avert a crash.
Odysseus had been scouting around the lunar south pole for possible sites to ferry cargo and scientific payloads to and from the Moon for NASA, which paid for a big chunk of the mission. The lander is expected to operate on the lunar surface for up to seven days before the site’s freezing temperatures render it inoperable. Its science payloads include cameras and a device to analyze particles of charged dust, as well as technology from the commercial sector, including insulation material developed by Columbia Sportswear and a commemorative payload designed by artist Jeff Koons.
Intuitive Machines is still determining whether the lander’s solar panel will be able to charge its batteries enough to survive the lunar night. But it expects to know more by Monday when flight controllers send a command to start downloading the telemetry collected by the lander.
Until then, the company will monitor Odysseus’ progress through its 57-mile orbit above the Moon. Its next step is to fire its main engine twice or perform a trajectory correction maneuver to fine-tune its path toward the lander’s desired landing spot at 80 degrees latitude.
The lander is still several days from its target. Still, NASA and other private companies that aim to ferry people to the Moon hope for successful operations like this to give them confidence they can build spacecraft to take humans on future voyages. That could make the lunar frontier less expensive and accelerate the pace of putting astronauts on the ground. Intuitive Machines has a contract to fly three additional missions for NASA, with an option to go up to eight more times. It also is working with private customers on a project to deliver cargo to the Moon, using a vehicle that could be built and flown in as few as 18 months. The company’s CEO, Stephen Altemus, is scheduled to attend a news conference late on Friday.