The Odysseus module, from the private company Intuitive Machines, took off from Florida bound for the Moon.
The launch of the Odysseus module took place at the scheduled time, 1:05 a.m. (Florida local time). The landing on the lunar surface is scheduled for next Thursday, February 22, 2024. The Odysseus module travels aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from the SpaceX company, which took off this morning without setbacks from Launch Complex 39A of the Space Center NASA Kennedy Center in central Florida.
The module of the private company Intuitive Machines carries with it NASA instruments. The main objective of the mission, called IM-1, is to bring scientific instruments to the south pole of the Moon, a region that remains unexplored.
Once in orbit, this Nova-C series lander, equipped with a propulsion system, powered by an environmentally friendly mixture of oxygen and methane, both liquids, separated from the rocket to head towards the Moon.
Explorations prior to the Artemis III mission
After landing, the idea is that operations there will extend for about seven days, before lunar night arrives at the south pole, leaving Odysseus inoperable. Specifically, the landing will take place in the vicinity of the Malapert massif, about 300 kilometers from the south pole of the Moon, an area full of “uncertainty”, according to NASA experts.
Researchers believe the area is composed of material from the lunar highlands, similar to the Apollo 16 landing site. According to Intuitive Machines, the mission seeks to create a low-cost platform that will carry NASA scientific instruments to the Moon, as well as commercial cargo, to pave the way for a sustainable human presence in that natural satellite and its surroundings.
The landing site is one of 13 regions NASA is considering for the Artemis III mission, which will be that program’s first crewed moon landing mission and the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Starship HLS lander.
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