Odysseus lunar lander has created history by becoming the first private spacecraft to land on the moon.
In addition, it marked the first lunar landing by a US-built spacecraft in five decades.
Intuitive Machines, a Houston-based company, created Odysseus.
Shortly after the landing at 5:23 p.m. CT, Stephen Altemus, president and CEO of Intuitive Machines, declared, “Houston, Odysseus has found its new home.”
‘I know this was a nail-biter but we are on the surface and we are transmitting,’ said Intuitive Machines president and CEO Stephen Altemus. ‘Welcome to the moon.’
Odie experienced communication challenges but about 10 minutes later completed its mission.
‘Houston, Odysseus has found its new home,’ said Altemus just after the landing at 5.23pm CT.
The lander’s condition was not immediately known.
Engineers at Intuitive Machines’ Nova control center did not pick up a signal from Odie right away. A faint signal finally came through a communications antenna in the UK that served as confirmation that the lander made a successful touchdown.
‘What we can confirm, without a doubt, is our equipment is on the surface of the moon, and we are transmitting,’ the mission director Tim Crain said to the flight control team.
‘So congratulations, IM team! We’ll see how much more we can get from that.’
Images of Odysseus after its landing did not immediately come through.
Odysseus departed Earth aboard a SpaceX rocket last Thursday and entered the moon’s orbit on Wednesday.
Odie made an extra lunar orbit that enabled it to use NASA’s Navigation Doppler Lidar after its own laser instrument stopped functioning.
A month after the American Peregrine spacecraft failed to make a successful landing on the moon due to an atmospheric fire, returning to Earth, Odysseus succeeded in his mission.
