Odysseus becomes first US spacecraft to land on moon in over 50 years

For the first time in more than 50 years, America has returned to the moon. The uncrewed Odysseus spacecraft landed on the surface of the moon late Thursday, February 22, 2024.

The robotic spacecraft, designed and operated by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, is now the first commercial spacecraft to ever land on the moon. It was a historic moment as this was the first time any US-built spacecraft had landed on the moon since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.

“Today, for the first time in more than a half century, the US has returned to the moon. Today, for the first time in the history of humanity, a commercial company, an American company, launched and led the voyage up there,” Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, said.

In the final hours, the mission was mired in glitches, including communication and instrument malfunctions, leading to a two-hour delay in landing.

Intuitive Machines said that their engineers overcame last-minute difficulties and announced on X that “Odysseus is upright and starting to send data.” The company said it is working on bringing the spacecraft’s first images from the moon’s surface to Earth.

“Houston, Odysseus has found its new home,” Stephen Altemus, president and CEO of Intuitive Machines, said shortly after the landing at 5:23 p.m. CST. The announcement came about 10 minutes after it happened after some communications challenges. Tension built as the team behind the IM-1 mission waited for confirmation with bated breath. “I know this was a nail-biter, but we are on the surface and we are transmitting,” he said. “Welcome to the moon.”

The United States is the only country to have successfully landed astronauts on the moon in six Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972. China, Russia, Japan, and India have achieved uncrewed spacecraft landing on the lunar surface.

How NASA tech saved the day?

The historic U.S. moon landing took a dramatic turn when the Odysseus spacecraft’s navigation systems malfunctioned about two hours before the expected touchdown. The unmanned robotic lander relies on rangefinders, navigation lasers, and cameras to precisely locate its position by capturing images of the lunar surface and avoiding obstacles.

However, with these systems failing, Intuitive Machines opted to utilize NASA’s experimental technology to save the mission and achieve a precise landing.

“NASA’s Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing (NDL) guidance system for descent and landing ultimately played a key role in aiding the successful landing,” NASA said in a statement. This instrument operates on the same principles of radar and uses pulses from a laser emitted through three optical telescopes. It measures speed, direction, and altitude with high precision during descent and touchdown.

NASA’s engineers had initially planned to utilize this technology for future Moon missions. However, it unexpectedly became a lifeline for Friday’s mission.

Odysseus lander

The Odysseus lander is roughly 14-foot-tall (4.3 meters), which is about the size of a phone booth. The Nova-C lunar lander, named Odysseus, is hexagonal with six landing legs.

Odysseus, launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 earlier this month, aims to collect lunar surface. The mission will conduct scientific research to help us better understand the Moon’s environment and improve landing precision and safety in the challenging conditions of the lunar south polar region, paving the way for future astronaut missions. 

The lander has been developed by Intuitive Machines, which is one of 14 vendors eligible to transport NASA payloads to the Moon through the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative that commenced in 2018.

As the primary customer for Intuitive Machines’ flight, NASA has allocated $118 million to the company to deliver six instruments to the lunar surface. These instruments include:

1. LRA (Laser Retroreflector Array): A collection of eight retroreflectors that enable precision laser ranging, which is a measurement of the distance between an orbiting or landing spacecraft to the reflector on the lander.
2. NDL (Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing): A LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) instrument to accurately measure the spacecraft’s altitude and velocity during descent to the lunar surface, utilizing laser light.
3. LN-1 (Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator): A small, CubeSat-sized flight hardware experiment that integrates navigation and communication functionality for autonomous navigation to support future surface and orbital operations.
4. SCALPSS (Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies): A suite of four cameras to capture stereo and still images of the dust plume created by the lander’s engine upon landing on the lunar surface.
5. RFMG (Radio Frequency Mass Gauge): A NASA instrument within the lander’s propellant tank, utilizing radio waves to gauge remaining propellant levels in Nova-C’s tanks, providing data that can help predict propellant usage on future missions.
6. ROLSES (Radio-wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the Photoelectron Sheath): A low-frequency radio receiver and four antennas to study the impact of charged particles near the lunar surface on radio signals, aiding in the design of future lunar radio observatories. It will also detect radio emissions from the Sun, Jupiter, and Earth, as well as dust impacting the Moon’s surface.

Key Highlights of Odysseus lunar mission

• The Odysseus lunar lander, nicknamed “Odie” or IM-1 is the first US-made craft to land on the moon in 50 years.
• Intuitive Machines engineers overcome navigation issues to pull off challenging landings.
• The milestone follows a recent failed U.S. lunar lander mission by Pittsburgh-based aerospace company Astrobotic.
• The Odysseus lander’s mission is to assess the lunar south pole environment ahead of NASA’s crewed mission in late 2026.