First U.S. moon landing since 1972 as private spacecraft touches down on lunar surface
HOUSTON - Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lander touched down on the moon Thursday after a historic, nail-biting descent following a last-minute navigation sensor malfunction, becoming the first U.S.-built spacecraft to stick a moon landing in more than 50 years and the first ever by a private company, William Harwood reports for CBS News. Continue reading original article.
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
26 February 2024 -On 23 February, Intuitive Machines, the company behind the commercial lunar lander, said that its lander "Odysseus is alive and well. Flight controllers are communicating and commanding the vehicle to download science data. The lander has good telemetry and solar charging. We continue to learn more about the vehicle’s specific information (Lat/Lon), overall health, and attitude (orientation)."
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said its instruments onboard are operating as expected. Instruments include the LN-1 (Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator), NDL (Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing), RFMG (Radio Frequency Mass Gauge), ROLSES (Radio-wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the Photoelectron Sheath), SCALPSS (Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies).
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Jamie Whitney, Senior Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics
