Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C robotic lunar lander Odysseus is in “excellent health” and on track to be inserted into lunar orbit this week, the Houston-based aerospace company said Sunday.
The update comes three days after Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission successfully launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Thursday, putting the Odysseus private lunar lander on track to becoming the first U.S. moon landing in more than 50 years. The IM-1 mission is headed to the South Pole region of the moon as part of NASA’s commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) initiative and Artemis campaign.
On Saturday, Intuitive Machines released the first images from the IM-1 Mission, showing Oydysseus’ journey toward the moon with the Earth in the background.
According to the company, Odysseus’ wide and narrow field-of-view cameras were programmed to take a progression of five quick images every five minutes for two hours beginning 100 seconds after the lander separated from SpaceX’s second stage.
“Out of all the images collected, Intuitive Machines chose to show humanity’s place in the universe with four wonderful images we hope to inspire the next generation of risk-takers,” Intuitive Machines said Sunday in an IM-1 Mission update.
“Odysseus continues to be in excellent health, and flight controllers are preparing planned trajectory correction maneuvers to prepare the lander for lunar orbit insertion. Since the IM-1 mission launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, flight controllers on the company’s red, white, and blue teams have been learning more about the lander and how to efficiently fly the mission to return the United States to the surface of the moon.”
Odysseus is expected to execute its lunar orbit insertion Wednesday, and a lunar landing opportunity is expected on Thursday afternoon. The lunar landing will be livestreamed here.
