First commercial moon landing: cheers after the “Ulysses” landing

The first commercial moon landing is a triumph for the USA – and those responsible were correspondingly jubilant after touchdown. Now NASA hopes that the lunar lander “Odi” will find water.

Silence in space – the minutes stretched past the expected landing time. Was it just a communication problem? Or had “Odi” crashed. Then the first signal reached Earth. “It’s faint, but it’s there, hang in there, guys,” Tim Crain, the mission leader, said on NASA’s live broadcast.

And even after fifteen minutes, everything was still a bit vague, but “we can confirm without a doubt that our equipment is on the surface of the moon and that we are transmitting,” said Crain, as colleagues applauded. However, it was not initially clear what condition the lunar probe was in.

“What a triumph”

Nevertheless: For the first time in around 50 years, a US probe has landed on the moon. “What a triumph,” said Bill Nelson, the head of the US space agency, in a video message. To then distort a 55-year-old saying: This achievement is a gigantic leap forward – for all of humanity. But above all for NASA and its program to team up with private partners for the next lunar missions. Because, says Nelson, for the first time in human history a commercial American company started and led the journey there.

The Texas company Intuitive Machines built the lunar lander nicknamed “Odysseus,” or “Odi” for short. He was transported into space by a rocket from Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX. Among other things, NASA wants to reduce costs and risks, says Keith Cowing, who runs the blog NASA Watch. You could either spend a lot of money on a government spacecraft or spread the risk and hope that if one spacecraft fails, another will succeed. Just last month, a company from Pittsburgh failed due to problems with the drive.

“Odi” landed at the South Pole

The spacecraft “Odysseus” weighs around 700 kilos, stands on aluminum legs and is full of technology: some of it belongs to NASA, some to private companies. The target was the south pole of the moon, an area where water is suspected. “If you have water, you have hydrogen and oxygen, and then you have rocket fuel,” said NASA boss Nelson on CNN.

And that’s important because the lunar probe is intended to prepare the next big step: building an outstation on the moon. This is different from the Apollo missions, says space journalist Miles O’Brien. Back then it was a race: “Ram the flag, leave footprints and beat the Soviets,” said O’Brien on CNN. This time it’s about staying and moving on from there – to Mars.