A private lander on Thursday made the first U.S. touchdown on the moon in more than 50 years, but managed just a weak signal back until flight controllers scrambled to gain better contact.
Despite the spotty communication, Intuitive Machines, the company that built and managed the craft, confirmed that it had landed upright. But it did not provide additional details, including whether the lander had reached its intended destination near the moon's south pole. The company ended its live webcast soon after identifying a lone, weak signal from the lander.
"What we can confirm, without a doubt, is our equipment is on the surface of the moon," mission director Tim Crain reported as tension built in the company's Houston control center.
Added Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus: "I know this was a nail-biter, but we are on the surface and we are transmitting. Welcome to the moon."
Data was finally starting to stream in, according to a company announcement two hours after touchdown.
The landing put the U.S. back on the surface for the first time since NASA's famed Apollo moonwalkers.
"On the eighth day of a quarter-million mile voyage, a voyage along the great cosmic bridge from the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center to the target of the south pole of the moon, a commercial lander named Odysseus, powered by a company called Intuitive Machines, launched upon a SpaceX rocket, carrying a bounty of NASA scientific instruments, and bearing the dream of a new adventure — a new adventure in science, innovation and American leadership in space, well all of that — aced a landing," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a video statement.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
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