SPACE
Odysseus historische US Mondlandung geglückt
February 22, 2024 - Einen Mondlander, erbaut von der Aerospace Firma Intuitive Machines of Houston ist nach mehr als 50 Jahren die erste US Mondlandung gelungen, sie ist auch die erste mit einem privaten Weltraumfahrzeug.
The company’s Nova-C lander, nicknamed Odysseus, lifted off on February 15 atop a Falcon 9 rocket flown by SpaceX from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Odysseus is carrying a range of scientific instruments, designed to gather data about the lunar environment ahead of NASA's planned return of astronauts to the moon later this decade.
If successful, flight would represent the first controlled descent to the lunar surface by a U.S. spacecraft since the final Apollo crewed moon mission in 1972, and the first by a private company.
The launch of the Intuitive Machines mission comes just one month after another American company, Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh, attempted to send Peregrine, its lander, to the moon. But a malfunction with its propulsion system shortly after launch prevented any possibility of landing.
- Private US moon lander launched half century after last Apollo lunar mission (Reuters)
- Intuitive Machines: US spacecraft blasts off to Moon's south pole (BBC)
- SpaceX launches private 'Odysseus' lander on pioneering moon mission (Space.com)
- The Intuitive Machines 1 (NASA)
- IM-1 MISSION (Intuitive Machines)