FOR the first time in 51 years, an American craft has touched down on the moon. The privately owned spacecraft named Odysseus landed on 22 February at the Malapert crater near the moon’s south pole.
The mission was organised by the space exploration company Intuitive Machines and is part of Nasa’s plan to send commercially flown spacecraft on scientific scouting missions to the moon ahead of a planned return of astronauts there later this decade.
Only five countries – the US, Russia, China, India and Japan – have managed a lunar landing and Intuitive Machines is the first private business to do so.
HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM
Odysseus is a six-legged unmanned robot lander. When it landed on the moon it stumbled over a rock and struggled to right itself. Intuitive Machines’ co-founder and CEO, Steve Altemus said they forgot to flip a switch before
