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Commercial US spaceship Odysseus lands on moon but transmitting weak signal
Commercial US spaceship Odysseus lands on moon, transmitting signal
A commercial spaceship landed near the moon's south pole but the flight controllers were receiving a signal from the hexagon-shaped lander Odysseus, the company behind the mission said.
“We’re evaluating how we can refine that signal," said mission director Tim Crain of Intuitive Machines. “But we can confirm, without a doubt, that our equipment is on the surface of the moon.”
“Congratulations, IM team, we'll see how much more we can get from that.”
The spaceship, which is part of NASA-funded, uncrewed commercial robots, is meant to pave the way for future human exploration of the Moon under the Artemis program.
“Your order was delivered… to the Moon! ” US space agency said in a post on X.
NASA said that Odysseus landed on the Moon at 6:23pm ET (4:53 am IST).
The landing comes months after India became the first country to successfully land its spacecraft on the moon's cold and treacherous south pole. Chandrayaan-3 lander Vikram safely reached the lunar surface in August 2023.
(This is breaking news…please check back for updates)
