Odysseus lunar lander shares new photos from its harrowing descent
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The Odysseus spacecraft has dispatched new images it captured of the lunar surface during the lander’s harrowing approach to the moon. The vehicle softly touched down on the moon on Thursday, becoming the first US-made lander to do so since the Apollo era.
The grainy images were shared by Intuitive Machines, the company that developed Odysseus, on Monday morning. The company had initially projected that the lander could deliver the first images captured from the lunar surface in the hours after landing, but communicating with the spacecraft has proven challenging.
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The mission team believes Odysseus tripped on the lunar soil and landed on its side, resting on a rock, which may have left some of the vehicle’s antennas pointed in an inopportune direction, Intuitive Machines revealed Friday.
In its update Monday, the company also said it now expects to lose contact with Odysseus on Tuesday — days earlier than initially hoped.
“Flight controllers intend to collect data until the lander’s solar panels are no longer exposed to light,” the company said in the update posted on the social media platform X. “Based on Earth and Moon positioning, we believe flight controllers will continue to communicate with Odysseus until Tuesday morning.”
At that point, Odysseus will have been operating less than five days on the lunar surface. The company had suggested in previous updates that the lander could function for up to nine days.