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Post by M. Hawbaker on Feb 22, 2024 23:56:22 GMT
An unmanned, robotic lunar lander launched by a private U.S. company landed on the moon Thursday evening. "We can confirm, without a doubt, that our equipment is on the surface of the moon," said Stephen Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based company that operated the Odysseus spacecraft. "Welcome to the moon." Altemus had estimated that Odysseus had an 80% chance of successfully landing on the moon, citing previous failed attempts as an advantage. “We’ve stood on the shoulders of everybody who’s tried before us,” Altemus said. It was the first American mission to land on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 and the first private spacecraft ever to make a soft landing there. While it was a private mission, NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to deliver six instruments to the moon. And the U.S. space agency provided streaming video of the landing. www.yahoo.com/news/watch-live-us-moon-landing-how-to-stream-lunar-lander-intuitive-machines-odysseus-houston-apollo-nasa-164032673.html
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Post by M. Hawbaker on Feb 24, 2024 20:25:13 GMT
Odysseus moon lander tipped over on its side during historic missionOdysseus, the first U.S.-built spacecraft to land on the moon since 1972, got tripped up just before touchdown and now rests horizontally on its side on the lunar surface. Steve Altemus, CEO of the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines that build the lander, said the team initially thought the unmanned six-footed lander had reached the surface upright. But data being sent from Odysseus revealed its horizontal resting situation. As the lander was descending vertically and laterally, it likely "caught a foot in the surface and the lander has tipped," he said during a video news conference on Friday, holding a model of Odysseus resting a few degrees above horizontal. www.yahoo.com/news/odysseus-moon-lander-tipped-over-181125223.html
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