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After an eight-day journey in space, Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission is ready to attempt a potentially historic landing on the lunar surface. Odysseus It will attempt a lunar landing near Malapert A crater in the moon’s south pole region on Thursday at 5:49 p.m. ET.
Intuitive machines will host a live stream of their landing WebsiteAnd NASA will also broadcast its own live coverage via the space agency Website And nasa tv, You can also join via the stream below. Live coverage will begin at 4:15 p.m. ET, and NASA will host a news conference afterward.
Things are looking good so far for Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C class lander Entered The company entered lunar orbit on Wednesday after a series of trajectory correction maneuvers and a nearly seven-minute main engine burn. announced, With the lander now in orbit around the moon, mission controllers will continue to analyze flight data and receive imagery sent back before the touchdown attempt. Odysseus,
The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which aims to provide a steady flow of landers headed to the Moon to deliver government-owned and commercial payloads. Odysseus It is loaded with 12 payloads, six of which are science and technology instruments for NASA.
With Thursday’s landing attempt, Intuitive Machines is hoping to become the first company to make a successful landing on the lunar surface, following a series of unfortunate anomalies that have foiled other recent missions. In January, astrobotic failed While attempting to reach the Moon due to a valve problem in his spacecraft. In April 2023, Japan’s iSpace Hakuto-R M1 crashed on the lunar surface, and Israel’s SpaceIL Beresheet lander A similar fate happened in April 2019 also.
If Odysseus After a successful landing, it is designed to operate on the surface for about a week, until the sun sets over the moon’s south polar region.
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