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FEBRUARY 24, 2024 Statement from President Joe Biden on the Successful Landing of the Odysseus Lunar Craft
STATEMENTS AND RELEASES On Thursday night, for the first time in over 50 years, an American spacecraft landed on the Moon – a thrilling step forward in a new era of space exploration.
The robotic lunar lander, named Odysseus, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on February 15. On Thursday, it sent images from the Moon as it circled in low orbit, before touching down near the South Pole.
This mission marks a milestone: the first Moon landing by an American company. Odysseus is a public-private partnership between NASA and the American company Intuitive Machines. It was made possible by American ingenuity, innovation, and curiosity. And, through NASA’s Artemis program, it’s the first of more public- and private-sector space missions to come, bringing together our international and commercial partners to return humans to the Moon for the first time in decades. America is leading the world back to the Moon.
In 1962, when America’s first Moon landing was still years away, President Kennedy spoke to a group of students about why the United States sets such bold missions for ourselves. “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things,” he said, “not because they are easy but because they are hard.” And he continued, “That challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one that we are unwilling to postpone, and one that we intend to win.”
What was true then is true now. America does hard things. We rise to the great scientific challenges of our time. And there’s nothing beyond our capacity when we work together.
I congratulate the Intuitive Machines team who successfully landed Odysseus, as well as their partners at NASA who are shaping the future of human space exploration.
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Missions: Odysseus in preparation for launch Intuitive Machines is conducting the first three Nova-C missions for the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. The landers are tasked with delivering small science and technology-development payloads.
IM-1 mission Main article: IM-1 The first Nova-C mission, IM-1, uses a lander named Odysseus. A contract for the mission was signed in 2021, with later modifications.
The mission launched 15 February 2024 on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle and landed on the lunar surface 21 February 2024. Its soft Moon landing is the first for an American made spacecraft since Apollo 17, more than 50 years ago, and the first by a private company. Odysseus touched down on the Moon in the middle of a lunar day, and is expected to remain functional for approximately seven more Earth days, when the cold lunar night will set in and the solar panels will no longer be able to supply power. The lander toppled on to its side upon landing, but was functional with some data being able to be sent back to Earth. Some antennas were not oriented towards Earth and were therefore not able to transmit the bulk of mission data. ---------------------------------------------- Successors Nova-D In an interview with NASA recorded in October 2023, Tim Crain, CTO of Intuitive Machines, mentioned the possible development of a Nova-D lander. Early reports of the in-development Nova-D state that it will use two of the VR-900 engines and be capable of carrying more than 500 kg to the lunar surface.
Nova-M Intuitive Machines is developing another lander, the Nova-M which, according to early reports, will use two VR-3500 engines originally developed for Boeing and their HLS to carry 5,000 kg to the lunar surface. .
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