SpaceX

Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus moon lander is in ‘excellent health’ and on track to be inserted into lunar orbit this week, the company said.

Following liftoff, NASA confirmed the spacecraft was stable and receiving solar power.

The mission is part of NASA’s commercial lunar payload services initiative and represents the first U.S. lunar landing in more than 50 years.

The mission was the first commercial spaceflight of government and European Space Agency-sponsored national astronauts.

The free-flying commercial space station will permanently host four crewmembers and is scheduled to launch before the International Space Station’s decommissioning.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the payload of more than 8,200 pounds of critical supplies headed to the International Space Station.

The mission arranged by Axiom Space will research cancer cures, remote-controlled robots, space horticulture, microgravity, and more.

Once they arrive at ISS, the Axiom Space astronauts will conduct 30 scientific experiments that NASA says will help advance research in low-Earth orbit.

This week’s moon mission won’t be the last in 2024 for NASA…or Astrobotic, the company behind Monday’s launch.

The second and third missions in the space agency’s Artemis program—which seeks to return Americans to the moon—were each delayed nearly one year.