Private U.S. company’s lunar lander launched toward moon

SpaceX on Thursday morning successfully launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a lunar lander built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines. The craft, nicknamed Odysseus, is scheduled to attempt a landing next week near the moon’s south pole. If the mission is successful, it would be the first time a private company has put a spacecraft on the moon. Only the United States, Russia, China, India, and Japan have completed successful lunar landings. Japan’s lander had limited success, losing power upon arrival. A U.S. spacecraft designed by Astrobiotic Technology last month malfunctioned shortly after launching. It broke apart in the Earth’s atmosphere 10 days later.

What is on board the craft? Six NASA navigation and technology experiments are on the 14-foot-tall lander, along with a camera built by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Columbia Sportswear partnered with Intuitive Machines to test a metallic fabric as a thermal insulator on the craft.

Dig Deeper: Listen to Bonnie Pritchett’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about NASA’s recent mission that returned to Earth with asteroid materials.