'Odysseus' Lunar Landing Mission Nears Completion

Telemetry from the Nova-C moon lander will end as it conducts a 'quiet power down,' Intuitive Machines said.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 04:56 PM ET

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Upon landing, the Nova-C lander tilted over slowly and came to rest at an angle about 30 degrees above the surface. [Courtesy: Intuitive Machines]

Key Takeaways:

The private lunar landing mission "Odysseus," which marked the first U.S. moon landing in over 50 years and the first by a private company (Intuitive Machines), is drawing to a close after six days on the lunar surface.
Despite landing at a tilt, the Nova-C lander successfully transmitted data from all its payloads, including six NASA instruments aimed at lunar research.
The lander is critically low on power and will soon shut down, though there's a possibility of attempting to reactivate it in about three weeks when sunlight again reaches its solar panels.

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Six days on the moon’s surface and 13 days after launch, the Odysseus private lunar landing mission that put the U.S. back on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years is drawing to a close.

Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission mad e history for completing the first successful moon landing by a company when its Nova-C autonomous lander Odysseus reached the South Pole region on February 22.