WASHINGTON.
For the first time since 1952, an American space probe reached the moon.
Yesterday, the company Intuitive Machines managed to pose on the Nova C-series Odysseus module as part of a new fleet of unmanned commercial robots funded by NASA.
“For the first time in more than 50 years, the United States is returning to the moon. And for the first time in history, a private company, an American company, started and completed the journey,” celebrated NASA boss Bill Nelson.
The aim of the trip is to prepare for missions with astronauts at the end of this decade.
“We can confirm without a doubt that our equipment is on the lunar surface and we are transmitting,” Tim Crain of Intuitive Machines said during the company’s live video broadcast.
The Houston-based company later assured that the probe had landed and started sending signals.
The hexagonal module, more than four meters high, landed near the satellite’s south pole at 5:39 p.m. (Mexico time).
The module is scheduled to operate for one lunar day, which corresponds to 14 Earth days.
A week ago, NASA successfully launched the Intuitive Machines-1 mission’s Odysseus lunar lander from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to study interactions on the lunar surface, study space weather and test landing technologies for the Artemis program to carry out.
The location chosen by Intuitive Machines is about 300 kilometers from the moon’s south pole.
The lunar landing’s target crater is named Malapert A, in honor of a 17th-century astronomer.
This area is of particular interest because it contains water in the form of ice that could be exploited.
NASA hopes to send astronauts to the moon with its Artemis program missions, which will require a closer study of the region.
In addition, the agency strives to reduce operating costs.