Intuitive Machines succeeds in the first private moon landing in history – Libération

Victory ! “We can confirm beyond doubt that our equipment is on the surface of the Moon, and that it is transmitting.”, announces Intuitive Machines after receiving and analyzing a signal from its lander. Odysseus therefore arrived on the surface of the Moon in good condition. Some applause and cries of joy greet the long-awaited news in the control room. Intuitive Machines successfully completed the first private moon landing in history.

NASA boss Bill Nelson spoke immediately afterwards to congratulate “Everyone involved” in this “triumph”. The American space agency knows that it can now count on this new private partner to support it in its future Artemis missions.

Silence. The fateful hour (12:24 a.m.) approached and approached, then it arrived… and we passed it. On the live NASA video, the Intuitive Machines team waits to receive data from its lunar lander from the control room. For the moment, there is nothing. The latest news received dates from the last seconds before the theoretical moment of contact. Should we understand that Odysseus is not able to express himself? Or are we facing simple communication difficulties?

Close-up. Ten minutes before the moon landing, which still looks good. The spacecraft is in an oblique position and finishes its descent by flying over the surface at low altitude, explain Intuitive Machines engineers on the live NASA video. Odysseus observes his environment with his cameras and navigation software, and must be able to navigate autonomously towards an obstacle-free location, near the south pole of the Moon, in the last seconds.

T – 39 minutes. Three quarters of an hour before the planned moon landing, the descent sequence began as planned. Odysseus now hovers less than 80 kilometers from the surface of the Moon. The ship is always in a horizontal position, as if lying on its side, parallel to the ground.

Another little trip around the Moon? “Flight controllers chose to do an additional orbit before initiating the landing sequenceâ€, tweet Intuitive Machines. The scheduled time of contact is pushed back to 12:24 a.m., and NASA’s live video will finally begin at 11 p.m.

Change of program. The planned moon landing time has just moved forward, because “flight controllers ordered a corrective maneuver to raise Odysseus’ orbit”. It is not clear why the altitude of the spacecraft had to be changed, but it is now expected to touch the surface of the Moon at 10:24 p.m.

Video evening. To follow the moon landing attempt live, NASA is offering a video evening from 10 p.m. (Paris time) on his Youtube channel. Interesting events will begin at 10:17 p.m., with the start of Odysseus’ slow descent toward the lunar surface. At 11:28 p.m., the ship will tilt vertically and present its four metal legs to the Moon, while activating its obstacle detection system which will allow final adjustments in the event that Odysseus loses its position. about to arrive straight on a rock. At 11:29 p.m., it’s time to slow down as much as possible with the retrorockets to arrive slowly. At 11:30 p.m., contact. We should very quickly have signals from the ship proving that it is still in working order, so that it has not crashed. If it’s all good, we will also receive a photo of our environment…

Insertion. This is the most delicate maneuver before the moon landing itself: this Wednesday, February 21, the lander had to turn on its engines to significantly change its trajectory, and “insert” into orbit around the Moon (instead of speeding past it). “Odysseus has completed its lunar orbit insertion burn and is currently in a 92 kilometer circular lunar orbit.”welcomed Intuitive Machines on (ex-Twitter).

Postcards. Odysseus takes several cameras with him to document his moon landing in images. The first postcards arrived shortly after his departure. With a wide-angle lens that distorts and rounds everything, the lander photographed the Earth shrinking behind it…

So far so good. And that’s already not bad. The Intuitive Machines lander, named Odysseus, took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida last Thursday, aboard a SpaceX rocket, towards our natural satellite. The rocket pushed it on the right trajectory then fell back towards Earth, whileOdysseus continued his journey alone. We remember that a month ago, a competitor of Intuitive Machines, Astrobotic, had undertaken exactly the same journey but had to abandon prematurely, and return to Earth instead of approach the Moon.

Shortly after takeoff, the electronic instruments ofOdysseus – sensors and radios – turned on. At one point, “The navigation system rejected the star tracker data, but we sent an update patch to the ship, and the star tracker resumed working.” operations nominally”tells Intuitive Machines in a press release. The private company strives to tell in detail the journey of its vehicle and its small hazards, communicating transparently about its mission as does NASA, its future partner. on the moon. Intuitive Machines, like Astrobotic, was indeed chosen by the American space agency as a service provider to carry out freight transport to and from the Moon.