For the first time in the history of space travel, a commercial landing on the moon was successful. With the landing of “Nova-C” on the surface of the Earth’s satellite, the first US moon landing in more than 50 years was achieved.
For the first time, a commercial lunar probe has landed on the moon. The lander “Nova-C” nicknamed “Odysseus” from the US company Intuitive Machines touched down in the southern region of the Earth’s satellite at night, as the US space agency NASA announced. It is the first unmanned US moon landing since the end of the Apollo program more than 50 years ago.
NASA boss Bill Nelson spoke of a triumph. It was not yet clear what condition Nova-C was in after landing. The control center said that initially only weak signals were received. They are working on getting stronger signals and finding out more about the exact condition of the lander.
NASA wants to go back to the moon with a new program
“Nova-C” was previously launched into space on board a SpaceX launch vehicle from the US spaceport Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida. The “Nova-C” lander, nicknamed “Odysseus,” is about the size of an old-fashioned British phone booth, has aluminum legs, weighs around 700 kilograms and can carry around 130 kilograms of cargo. NASA has allocated a large part of it with research equipment and other material, while commercial companies have secured the rest for their projects. The US artist Jeff Koons also sent along 125 miniature sculptures made of stainless steel.
“Nova-C” entered lunar orbit on February 21st.
The “Nova-C” mission is part of NASA’s “CLPS” (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program. With this program, the US space agency wants to collect as much knowledge as possible on its own way back to the moon comparatively cheaply and efficiently by awarding contracts for lunar landings to private companies and working with them. With the help of the companies, NASA also wants to equip the moon as a stopover for future flights to Mars.
A total of around 2.6 billion dollars (around 2.4 billion euros) is budgeted for the “CLPS” program by 2028. Intuitive Machines received around $77 million for the “Nova-C” mission. The company, based in Houston, Texas, was founded in 2013 by, among others, the US-Iranian entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian, who is also behind the company Axiom Space, which has just sent astronauts to the International Space Station on a commercial mission.
Five countries with successful landings on the moon
So far, only the USA, the Soviet Union, China, India and Japan have succeeded in landing on the moon. A private company has never succeeded in such an undertaking before. It was only in January 2024 that the US company Astrorobotic failed with a similar mission. The Pittsburgh-based company launched the “Peregrine” capsule – also part of NASA’s “CLPS” program. The lunar lander had to self-destruct before reaching Earth’s satellite due to a fuel leak.
Shortly afterwards, the lander “SLIM” (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) from the Japanese space agency Jaxa touched down gently on the moon, but initially had problems with the energy supply. “SLIM” was only able to go into operation after a power outage that lasted for days. In April 2023, a Japanese company with a similar mission failed.