(Cape Canaveral, Florida) – February 15, 2024 – A private U.S. company, Intuitive Machines, has launched a lunar lander towards the Moon, marking the first attempt by a privately owned spacecraft to land on the Moon since the Apollo missions over fifty years ago.
The launch took place early on Thursday, February 15, 2024, from NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, using a Falcon 9 rocket provided by SpaceX.
This mission, named “IM-1,” aims to achieve a touchdown near the Moon’s south pole on February 22, following a day in lunar orbit.
The South Pole region is particularly interesting due to its potentially treacherous terrain, including numerous craters and cliffs, and the possibility of containing frozen water. This area is also where NASA plans to land astronauts later in the decade.
Earlier this, India’s Vikram Lander from the Chandrayaan-3 Mission successfully landed on the Moon’s South Pole on 23-Aug-2023.
Experiments and Art on Board
Intuitive Machines’ lander, named after Homer’s hero in The Odyssey, carries a suite of experiments and payloads. NASA, the main sponsor of the mission, has included six navigation and technology experiments on the lander to facilitate future missions.
Additionally, the mission carries payloads from other customers, including a project by sculptor Jeff Koons, who is sending moon figurines in a transparent cube, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s EagleCam, designed to capture images of the lander as it descends to the lunar surface.
Why the Moon’s South Pole?
The South Pole region is of particular interest due to its unique terrain and the possibility of containing frozen water ice. This area is also where NASA plans to land astronauts later this decade, making the IM-1 mission even more crucial for gathering valuable data and testing technologies.
Key Differences Between US Moon Landers
- Mission type: IM-1 is a robotic mission aiming for technological advancement and scientific discovery, while the Apollo missions focused on crewed exploration and achieving the first manned lunar landing.
- Lander design: “Odysseus” is a smaller, robotic lander designed for specific tasks, whereas the Apollo Lunar Module was a complex spacecraft designed to house and support astronauts during their lunar stay.
- Destination: IM-1 targets the Moon’s south pole, while the Apollo missions landed in various equatorial regions.
This launch comes after a previous attempt by another private company, Astrobotic Technology, failed when its lunar lander missed the Moon and was destroyed over the Pacific Ocean.
The success of Intuitive Machines’ mission would mark a historic achievement as the first private company to successfully land on the Moon, joining only a handful of nations that have accomplished this feat.
