A pioneering lunar lander has beamed home its first photos from the final frontier.
Intuitive Machines' robotic Odysseus spacecraft took some selfies with Earth in the background shortly after its February 15 launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket — and we can all see them.
“Intuitive Machines successfully sent its first IM-1 mission images back to Earth on February 16, 2024. Under @NASA's CLPS initiative, the images were captured shortly after separation from @SpaceX's second stage on Intuitive Machines' first mission to the Moon,” the Houston-based company said Saturday ( Feb 17) by Post on X He shared four photos.
Related: Missions to the Moon: Past, Present and Future
CLPS is the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which places agency science instruments on private robotic moon landers like Odysseus. The instruments are designed to collect data to help NASA's Artemis program, which aims to establish a crewed base near the moon's south pole by the late 2020s.
Odysseus is carrying six private payloads along with six NASA experiments and technical demonstrations on its current IM-1 mission.
IM-1 is not the first CLPS attempt to get off the ground. That distinction goes to the first flight of Peregrine, a lunar lander built by Pittsburgh company Astrobotic, that launched last month on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket.
The launch went well, but Peregrine suffered a fuel leak shortly after separation from the rocket's upper stage. The lander was unable to reach the Moon, so its handlers led a controlled destruction in Earth's atmosphere on January 18.
Things went well for Odysseus. Lander is healthy and feb. Intuitive engines said it was communicating with mission control as it headed toward the moon for a planned touchdown attempt on the 22nd.
Various systems of the Odysseus functioned normally, including its engine, which provided only one critical test in deep space.
“Intuitive Engines flight controllers successfully fired the first liquid methane and liquid oxygen engine into space, completing the IM-1 mission engine. This engine firing included the full thrust main engine burn and throttle down-profile required for a lunar landing,” the company said in a statement. Friday X post evening (Feb. 16).
Success in the upcoming landing attempt would be historic; No private spacecraft has ever touched down gently on the moon.
Odysseus' liquid methane-liquid oxygen mixture is also used by SpaceX's Raptor engines, which power the company's giant new Starship rocket. The Starship, which SpaceX is building to take people to the Moon and Mars, is preparing for its third test flight, which could take place in the coming weeks.
