The probe from the Texas company Intuitive Machines landed on the moon, a maneuver never before achieved by a private company and not carried out by an American machine in more than 50 years. The scheduled lunar landing time was set at 5:24 p.m. Houston time, Texas, where the company's control room is located (6:24 p.m. in Quebec).
The Nova-C lander, which carries NASA's scientific instruments, is just over four meters high. It launched from Florida last week and reached lunar orbit on Wednesday.
The dreaded descent took about an hour. Cameras and lasers must enable the device to self-guide in real time.
This success not only marks a major milestone for private space travel, but also the first landing of an American probe on the moon since the end of the legendary Apollo program in 1972.
India and Japan recently managed to land there thanks to their national space agencies, becoming the fourth and fifth countries to do so after the Soviet Union, the United States and China.
But several companies – Israeli, Japanese and American – have so far failed to achieve the same feat.
Russia also missed a moon landing this summer.
lunar south pole
The location targeted by Intuitive Machines is about 300 kilometers from the moon's south pole. The crater that will serve as a runway is named Malapert A, after a 17th-century astronomer.
The lunar south pole is of interest because there is water there in the form of ice that could be used. NASA wants to send its astronauts there with its Artemis missions from 2026. She would like to study this region more intensively, particularly in preparation for these missions.
To do this, it uses its brand new program called CLPS (for “Commercial Lunar Payload Services”). Instead of developing ships for the moon itself, the American space agency commissioned private companies to bring their scientific equipment there.
Intuitive Machines is one of the selected companies and the contract value with NASA for this first mission, called IM-1, is $118 million.
The aim is to reduce costs for the authority, to be able to carry out the trip more frequently, but also to further develop the lunar economy. And this despite the risks of failure.
A first mission of the program led by the American company Astrobotic failed to reach the moon last month.
Seven days full of activity
The lunar lander Intuitive Machines, whose example for this mission was named Odysseus, also carries six private cargoes. Among them: sculptures by contemporary artist Jeff Koons depicting the phases of the moon.
NASA's six scientific instruments on board focus on initial observations of this little-explored region.
Cameras placed beneath the moon will analyze the amount of dust projected during the descent to compare it to the Apollo moon landings.
Another instrument will study lunar plasma (a layer of gas charged with electricity) and measure radio waves coming from the Sun and other planets.
Odysseus, powered by its solar panels, must operate for about seven days from the moment it lands before night falls at the moon's south pole.