The private American probe Odysseus successfully landed on the moon this evening. This is the first American moon landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.
More than 20 minutes after the moon landing, communication problems still prevented definitive confirmation that Odysseus is functional. The control room at Intuitive Machines, Houston, reported an abnormally weak signal from the probe.
Odysseus, which carries seven cameras from the Ontario firm Canadensys, touched the lunar ground in the Malapert A crater, less than 300 kilometers from the South Pole. It is the closest moon landing to the South Pole, whose attraction is due to its stocks of icy water.
The moon landing schedule was changed several times on Thursday due to problems with the navigation instruments of the Intuitive Machines probe. An experimental NASA laser system, which was to be tested during the mission, had to be used for the moon landing.
The suspense lasted until after the moon landing: communications problems delayed confirmation that it was a success.
The precision of the moon landing was vital: Malapart A has a diameter of only 24 kilometers.
This success follows the failure of the private Peregrine mission in January. Peregrine experienced a fuel leak shortly after launch and never reached lunar orbit. Two private lunar probes, the Israeli Beresheet in 2019 and the Japanese Hakuto-R in 2022, traveled to the Moon, but missed their moon landing.
Odysseus was launched on February 15. His mission is expected to last a week.
Two of Canadensys’ cameras will be used to test the prototype of the International Lunar Observatory (ILO-X), an NGO project bringing together astronomers from several countries. One of the cameras has a narrow field to observe the Milky Way away from the Sun’s light and the other a wide field to clearly observe the surroundings on the Moon.