Odysseus, a robotic lunar lander from private Houston company Intuitive Machines, lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s NASA Space Center. Kennedy in Florida.
If all goes according to plan, Odysseus will touch down at the Moon’s south pole on February 22, becoming the first private spacecraft in history to land on the Moon. Success would also be a big deal for the United States, which has not set foot on the lunar surface since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission more than half a century ago.
Falcon 9 launched from pad 39A. About 7.5 minutes later, the rocket’s first stage returned to Earth for a vertical landing at Cape Canaveral Space Launch Center, which is adjacent to the NASA facility. This was the 18th launch and landing for this SpaceX launch vehicle, Space.com reports.
Meanwhile, the Falcon 9 upper stage continued to climb, eventually deploying Odysseus into a lunar transfer orbit approximately 48.5 minutes after launch, as planned.
The descent vehicle, weighing 675 kilograms, first contacted mission control a few minutes after launch. Odysseus will soon begin moving towards lunar orbit – which will take six days. The craft will then prepare for its historic landing attempt, which will take place at Malapert A, a small crater located about 300 kilometers from the moon’s south pole.
Odysseus’ instruments are designed to collect data that will help NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to establish a base near the moon’s south pole before the end of the 2020s. The region is believed to be rich in water ice, which could support Artemis astronauts on the surface and could also be processed into rocket fuel, allowing crews to refuel spacecraft far from Earth.
Odysseus carries six NASA instruments at a cost of $118 million. The development and construction of the scientific equipment cost the agency another $11 million, agency officials said.
ROLSES (Radio Observation of the Photoelectron Shell of the Moon’s Surface) will characterize the electron plasma and radio environment near the IM-1 landing site; The LRA (Laser Retro-Reflector Array), a tiny array of reflectors, will serve as a guide to help future landers make precise landings on the Moon; NDL (Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precision Speed and Range) will use LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology to collect ultra-precise data during Odysseus’s descent and landing; SCALPSS (Stereo Cameras for the Study of Lunar Plume and Surface) will study how Odysseus’ exhaust plume interacts with lunar soil and rocks during landing, collecting data that can be used in the development of future Artemis landers; LN-1 (Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator), a small radio navigation beacon, will demonstrate autonomous spacecraft positioning technology that could aid future lunar rovers and landers and will eventually become part of a larger GPS-like system on and around the Moon; RFMG (Radio Frequency Mass Gauge) will use radio waves to measure the amount of fuel in Odysseus’s tank, which is difficult to do in microgravity.
Odysseus also carries six commercial loads for various clients, including Columbia Sportswear, which will be testing its Omni-Heat Infinity insulation material.
Other private cargo includes a set of sculptures by artist Jeff Koons and a “safe lunar vault” that aims to help preserve all human knowledge if something terrible were to happen on Earth.
IM-1 also carries an EagleCam, built by students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. This camera system will deploy from Odysseus as it approaches the lunar surface and attempt to photograph the moment the lander touches down.
SpaceX moves from Delaware to Texas
Elon Musk has begun moving his business out of Delaware after a judge in that state invalidated his $55 billion Tesla pay package. In a post on X, Musk announced that SpaceX had moved its corporate home from Delaware to Texas, along with a copy of the certificate of conversion he received from the Texas Secretary of State. “If your company is still registered in Delaware, I recommend moving to another state as soon as possible,” Musk added.
SpaceX has moved its state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas!
If your company is still incorporated in Delaware, I recommend moving to another state as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/B7FLByL2dY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 15, 2024
He also moved Neuralink’s business from Delaware to Nevada on February 8, shortly after reporting that the company had implanted a brain chip in a human patient for the first time. With the location change, Neuralink joins another company Musk controls in the state: X, which he also moved from Delaware when he changed its name from Twitter in 2023, Engadget reports.
Elon Musk’s Neuralink first implanted a chip in the human brain — it’s called Telepathy
However, unlike SpaceX and Neuralink, Tesla will likely take some time to move its registration. Musk still needs to get shareholder votes to do this. It’s worth noting that both Tesla and SpaceX already have a significant presence in Texas. Tesla moved its physical headquarters to Texas from California due to safety measures imposed during COVID-19. The state also has a Gigafactory, which produces the company’s vehicles, including the Cybertruck. Meanwhile, Boca Chica, Texas is home to SpaceX Starbase, where Starship is manufactured and tested.
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