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After half-century absence, U.S. returns to moon as lunar lander Odysseus touches down:
America has returned to the moon after a 52-year absence. The unmanned Odysseus spacecraft touched down on the lunar surface shortly before 6:30 p.m. EST Thursday.
"We can confirm without a doubt that our equipment is on the surface and we are on the moon. Odysseus has found a new home," said Dr. Tim Crain, mission director of the IM-1, the first American private venture to send a module to the moon.
It's the first time the United States has had a new presence on the lunar surface since NASA's Apollo 11 in July 1969.
The Intuitive Machines Odysseus lunar lander, nicknamed "Odie" or "IM-1," settled on the moon's surface after a day's long trek but immediately began experiencing communication problems, preventing the transmission of data.
The general tone of this story here and elsewhere seems to be that this heralds a new era of a commercial space industry, but until one can show that there is any commercial value to being on the Moon besides directly supporting NASA/ESA/etc., is this a watershed moment, or is this just slightly expanding the potential NASA/ESA/etc. contractor pool? --hubie
Previously: Private US Moon Lander Successfully Launches 24 Hours After Flight Was Delayed
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday February 23 2024, @01:04PM (5 children)
Apollo was deeply reliant on contractors for the LEM and other vehicles... I don't see this as any different, until the commercial entities start specifying, and funding, mission objectives. Until then, they are still contractors.
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(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday February 23 2024, @01:15PM
Same line, different angle
The watershed moment was late 50-ies early-60-ies. Which, you know? is more like water-under-the-bridge today.
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(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Friday February 23 2024, @05:17PM (3 children)
It's hard to know yet. The represents private organizational ability, which we're seeing become more widespread. Looking back, this could be a footnote or an early baby step as things fundamentally change. Falcon re-use has already made multi-thousand sat constellations viable. I'd bet starship changes things again once it's in regular operation, especially once ULA or someone else steps up with a real competitor.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday February 23 2024, @05:42PM (2 children)
> represents private organizational ability
NASA has been a collection of private contractors largely independently delivering their own components of the overall mission system since forever. I believe the Apollo LEM was just about entirely provided by Lockheed Martin...
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(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Friday February 23 2024, @09:46PM (1 child)
Nope, it was built by Grumman. https://www.nasa.gov/history/50-years-ago-the-apollo-lunar-module/ [nasa.gov]
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday February 23 2024, @09:53PM
Cool, and not only was it produced by Grumman, but it was designed by a Grumman engineer (and I suspect more than a few supporting engineers at Grumman as well):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Kelly_(aerospace_engineer) [wikipedia.org]
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