Washington: After more than half a century, America has succeeded in landing back on the land of the moon.
A robotic lunar lander named ‘Odysseus Spacecraft’ of a private American company Intuitive Machines landed on the South Pole of the Moon on Thursday evening local time.
In a statement, the company’s chief executive officer, Stephen Ultimus, confirmed the lander’s successful landing on the surface of the moon.
Odysseus lost contact with NASA as it reached the surface of the moon, but after a 15-minute search, officials confirmed re-establishment of contact with the spacecraft.
In a statement released by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson after contact with the spacecraft was restored, a commercial lander called ‘Odysseus’ from Intuitive Machines, which was launched on a SpaceX rocket and NASA A number of scientific instruments were sent with it, successfully landed. Today, after more than half a century, America has returned to the moon.
Stephen Ultimus estimated that Odysseus had an 80 percent chance of successfully landing on the moon. They used past failures as leverage.
He said, “We are standing on the shoulders of those who have tried before.”
The spacecraft is the first US mission since Apollo 17 to land on the moon in 1972 and the first private spacecraft to make a soft landing on the moon.
