Odysseus moon lander mission cut short after botched landing

Feb. 27 (UPI) -- The historic Odysseus moon landing mission was cut short Tuesday as flight controllers expected to lose contact with the private spacecraft after it toppled over during last week's botched landing.

Intuitive Machines, the Houston space company that built the unmanned Odysseus, said it planned to collect data "until the lander's solar panels are no longer exposed to light," which is two to three days earlier than planned.

"Based on Earth and Moon positioning, we believe flight controllers will continue to communicate with Odysseus until Tuesday morning," the company said Monday in a post on X, before the lander's battery life died out.

Thursday's tricky landing was the first time the United States has had a presence on the moon since NASA's Apollo 11 in July 1969. It took Odysseus eight days to reach the lunar surface after launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Florida's Cape Canaveral.

NASA and leaders from Intuitive Machines said Friday that the 14-foot-tall vehicle flew sideways while landing, caught a foot on the surface and tipped onto its side about 185 miles from the moon's south pole. Despite the rough landing, the spacecraft was functioning normally and was able to gather scientific data.

On Monday, Intuitive Machines said Odysseus was still in communication with flight controllers in Houston and had beamed back the first images from the lunar surface.

"The images included here are the closest observations of any spaceflight mission to the south pole region of the Moon," Intuitive Machines wrote Tuesday in a post on X.

"Odysseus is quite the photographer, capturing this image approximately 30 meters above the lunar surface while his main engine throttled down more than 24,000 mph. Another day of exploration on the south pole region of the Moon."

Scientists have long focused on the moon's south pole, which may contain water ice reserves and mineral deposits. NASA plans to send crewed Artemis missions to the region in the future.

For the Odysseus mission, NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to carry scientific payloads for its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. NASA had hoped to gather valuable data for Artemis, but it is unclear whether the space agency retrieved the data it needed now that the week-long mission has been cut short.