Odysseus moon lander mission cut short after botched landing

1 of 2 | Odysseus passes complete nan adjacent broadside of nan satellite pursuing lunar orbit insertion connected February 21. Intuitive Machines' Odysseus spacecraft became nan first U.S. spacecraft and nan first commercialized spacecraft to onshore connected nan lunar aboveground successful 52 years erstwhile it touched down connected Thursday. Photo courtesy of Intuitive Machines/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 27 (UPI) -- The historical Odysseus satellite landing ngo was trim short Tuesday arsenic formation controllers expected to suffer interaction pinch nan backstage spacecraft aft it toppled complete during past week's botched landing.

Intuitive Machines, nan Houston abstraction institution that built nan unmanned Odysseus, said it planned to cod information "until nan lander's star panels are nary longer exposed to light," which is 2 to 3 days earlier than planned.

"Based connected Earth and Moon positioning, we judge formation controllers will proceed to pass pinch Odysseus until Tuesday morning," nan institution said Monday in a post connected X, earlier nan lander's artillery life died out.

Thursday's tricky landing was nan first clip nan United States has had a presence connected nan moon since NASA's Apollo 11 successful July 1969. It took Odysseus 8 days to scope nan lunar aboveground aft launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center astatine Florida's Cape Canaveral.

NASA and leaders from Intuitive Machines said Friday that nan 14-foot-tall conveyance flew sideways while landing, caught a ft connected nan aboveground and tipped onto its broadside astir 185 miles from nan moon's southbound pole. Despite nan unsmooth landing, nan spacecraft was functioning usually and was capable to gather technological data.

On Monday, Intuitive Machines said Odysseus was still successful connection pinch formation controllers successful Houston and had beamed backmost nan first images from nan lunar surface.

"The images included present are nan closest observations of immoderate spaceflight ngo to nan southbound rod region of nan Moon," Intuitive Machines wrote Tuesday in a post connected X.

"Odysseus is rather nan photographer, capturing this image astir 30 meters supra nan lunar aboveground while his main motor throttled down much than 24,000 mph. Another time of exploration connected nan southbound rod region of nan Moon."

Scientists person agelong focused connected nan moon's southbound pole, which whitethorn incorporate h2o crystal reserves and mineral deposits. NASA plans to nonstop crewed Artemis missions to nan region successful nan future.

For nan Odysseus mission, NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 cardinal to transportation technological payloads for its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. NASA had hoped to stitchery valuable information for Artemis, but it is unclear whether nan abstraction agency retrieved nan information it needed now that nan week-long ngo has been trim short.