The lander of a young American company that hopes to become the first private company to successfully land on the moon and the first American device to do so in more than 50 years was successfully launched into space shortly after liftoff from Florida on Thursday .
The mission, called IM-1, carries a lunar lander developed by Texas-based Intuitive Machines, founded in 2013. The launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying it took place shortly after 1 a.m. from the Kennedy Space Center in the US East. Coast.
Once detached from the rocket’s upper stage, the lander was ignited and launched “successfully”, “establishing a stable position, charging solar panels and radio contact,” according to a report from Intuitive Machines, whose operations control room is based in Houston, Texas.
India and Japan recently successfully landed on the lunar surface, becoming the fourth and fifth countries to do so, after the Soviet Union, the United States and China.
However, several private companies, including another US company last month, have failed to repeat the feat.
“We are fully aware of the enormous challenges ahead,” said Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, quoted in a press release.
If all goes as expected, the device will attempt to land on the moon next week, on February 22.
Success would mark a historic milestone for the space sector, as well as the first landing of an American spacecraft on the moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.
Lunar South Pole
The model of the lander sent is called Nova-C and it measures more than four meters in height.
The device, the copy of which used for this first mission was named Odysseus, carries six private payloads including sculptures by contemporary artist Jeff Koons depicting the phases of the moon.
Above all, it carries six scientific instruments from NASA, the main client of this trip.
The mission is part of a new program called CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services), set up by the US space agency, which has commissioned private companies to transport scientific equipment to the moon in preparation for the return of astronauts.
By relying on the private sector, NASA says it can send more material, more often and for less than with vehicles it owns. However, he is aware of the risks of failure of some of these missions entrusted to young companies.
“These bold lunar probes will not only conduct science experiments on the Moon, but also support the growing private space economy,” NASA chief Bill Nelson said in a statement Thursday.
The contract signed by the US space agency for this first Intuitive Machines mission is $118 million. The company’s shares rose 17% on Thursday morning on the New York Stock Exchange.
The planned landing site is a crater near the south pole of the Moon, which is still poorly explored.
The lunar south pole is important for NASA because it is where it wants to land its astronauts from 2026 at the earliest as part of the Artemis missions.
The reason: there is water in the form of ice that could be used.
The six scientific instruments on board should enable the study of this particular environment.
For example, four cameras will monitor the descent phase and the dust thrown up during the landing to compare its effects with those of the Apollo moon landings, which took place closer to the equator.
Several missions planned
America’s first Astrobotic, which also has a contract with NASA for the CLPS program, failed to reach the moon in January.
The new Astrobotic test, as well as two other Intuitive Machines missions (IM-2 and IM-3), are already scheduled for this year.
A third American company, Firefly Aerospace, is also set to attempt the adventure in 2024.
Tests by other companies, Israeli and Japanese, ended in accidents in 2019 and 2023.