IM-1 Odysseus

Key facts

Mission & specifications

Mission

On 22 February 2024 a six-legged lander called Odysseus touched down near the Moon's south pole and made history twice over: it was the first American spacecraft to land softly on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, and the first ever built and flown by a private company rather than a government. Odysseus — a Nova-C lander from the Texas firm Intuitive Machines — flew under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme, a new model in which the agency buys delivery to the Moon as a service rather than building the spacecraft itself, opening the surface to many small, frequent, lower-cost missions ahead of the Artemis crews. The landing was dramatic. A laser rangefinder needed for navigation had been left disabled before flight, and the team improvised a fix in space using an experimental NASA instrument aboard. Coming down faster and moving sideways more than planned, Odysseus caught a foot and tipped over, ending up on its side. Even so it had survived, and several payloads returned data over the following days before the long lunar night silenced it. Imperfect but historic, Odysseus reopened the Moon to the United States and proved private industry could deliver to another world — the first of a wave of commercial landers now following in its tracks.

1. 2024Launch of OdysseusLaunch

   Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander launches under NASA's commercial lunar programme.

2. 2024First US commercial Moon landingLanding

   The first US soft landing since Apollo — Odysseus catches a foot and settles on its side.

3. 2024Powered downMission end

   After returning data for several days, the lander shuts down as the lunar night arrives.

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