The Odysseus spacecraft fell over when it landed on the Moon but still sent back pictures from the far south, a place no ship had landed before.
Made by Intuitive Machines in Houston, this unmanned ship marked America’s return to the moon after 50 years, a first for a private company. However, the American moon lander tipped because one leg got stuck during the landing. However, a quick fix saved the mission.
“Odysseus continues to communicate with flight controllers in Nova Control from the lunar surface. After understanding the end-to-end communication requirements, Odysseus sent images from the lunar surface of its vertical descent to its Malapert A landing site, representing the furthest south any vehicle has been able to land on the Moon and establish communication with ground controllers,” Intuitive Machines posted on X (formerly Twitter).
The post included two pictures: one from the hexagon-shaped spaceship’s descent, and the other taken 35 seconds after it fell over, revealing the pockmarked soil of the Malapert A impact crater.
During Odysseus’ landing on the Moon, special navigation systems found nine safe places to land in the South Pole area. That part of the Moon is always in shadow and might have a lot of resources like water and ice. This ice could help with future space travel and living on the Moon, Intuitive Machines added.
NASA’s Lunar Camera team showed pictures proving the Odysseus spacecraft landed at a spot very high up, at coordinates 80.13°S and 1.44°E. It travelled over 6,00,000 miles and managed to land less than 1.5 km away from where it was supposed to, near Malapert A, thanks to a last-minute fix to its laser guiding system.