Amrutha Avasarala, Pune
Odysseus, the first spacecraft made and launched by a Texas based company Intuitive Machines, has made a historic landing on the south pole of the moon. This is the first successful landing made by the US after Apollo 17 in 1972.
The landing happened at 6:23 pm EST on Thursday, 22nd February 2023. Initially after the launch, all connections and signals with the spacecraft were lost and it took several minutes to re-establish the link. There was an unexpected last minute repair. There was an autonomous navigation system glitch. The engineers in the ground station have to find solutions and fix it to reconnect with the rocket, according to the flight controllers.
Intuitive Machines, the Texas based private company which made the spacecraft, tweeted on X, “After troubleshooting communications, flight controllers have confirmed Odysseus is upright and starting to send data”. And also said that downlinking of lunar images from the spacecraft is being initiated. The launch happened in the south pole of the moon on a crater named Malapert A.
The spacecraft is the first ever mission carried out by the private sector successfully. The rocket is not equipped to carry out a live video feature. It carries scientific instruments and technology demonstrations from NASA. The aim is to study weather and its interactions and conditions on the moon’s surface.
The study is to help NASA’s future missions and landing. It is also said to aid the return of NASA astronauts later this year. The studies also include radio astronomy and various other aspects. This is one another approach to studying the lunar surface on a global level.
The last landing on the moon by the United States of America was in 1972 with two astronauts on board, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt.
Various countries attempted to reach and land on the moon and only a few nations could successfully launch their spacecraft. These nations include the Soviet Union, India, China, Japan and the USA.
India made it to the moon successfully in the third attempt in 2023. The mission was Chandrayaan 3 and marked a great milestone in the journey of ISRO.