Odysseus becomes first US spacecraft to land on moon in over 50 years

The Odysseus lander, the spacecraft aiming to make a historic landing on the moon on Thursday, is roughly the size of a British telephone booth with legs attached, according to the company that made it.

Intuitive Machines is set to land the spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, an area of high interest in the space race. This region is suspected to be home to water ice that could one day be converted into drinking water for astronauts — or even rocket fuel. The south pole is also the same lunar region where NASA is seeking to land astronauts later this decade.

What's on board: The lander, nicknamed "Odie," will be equipped with six NASA payloads — an array of scientific instruments designed to test new technology or evaluate the lunar environment, such as a study of how the moon’s soil behaves during landing.

Also on board will be commemorative objects, including a sculpture representing the moon phases designed in consultation with Jeff Koons, and technology from private-sector companies, including Columbia Sportswear, which developed insulation material for the lander.

If all goes according to plan, Odysseus will spend seven days operating on the moon as the lunar lander basks in the sun. But as the landing zone moves into Earth’s shadow, experiencing lunar night, the spacecraft will be put to sleep.

Countries and companies worldwide are racing to the surface of the moon — for several critical reasons. 

So far, China, India and Japan are the only nations to have soft-landed vehicles on the moon in the 21st century. But there are more than 100 lunar missions planned to take place before 2030, according to the European Space Agency.

Here’s why:

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Success is not guaranteed as the Odysseus lunar lander prepares to attempt to touch down on the moon on Thursday. If it fails, Odysseus, nicknamed "Odie," would become the third lunar lander to meet a fiery demise on the moon in less than a year.

Russia’s first lunar lander mission in 47 years, Luna 25, failed in August 2023 when it crash-landed. Hakuto-R, a lander developed by Japan-based company Ispace, met a similar fate last April.

In February 1966, the Soviet Union’s Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to make a controlled, or “soft,” landing. The United States followed just four months later when its robotic Surveyor 1 spacecraft touched down on the moon’s surface.

Since then, only three other countries — China, India and Japan — have achieved such a milestone. All three reached the moon with robotic vehicles for the first time in the 21st century. India and Japan each pulled off the monumental feat within just the past six months.

Odysseus could also become the first spacecraft developed by a private company ever to make a soft landing — a feat that has so far remained out of reach for the commercial sector. Apart from Ispace's Hakuto-R lander, Israeli company SpaceIL attempted to land its Beresheet spacecraft on the moon in 2019. But it crash-landed because of a technical glitch.

The Odysseus lunar lander may be just one small spacecraft among a fleet under development by NASA and the US private sector, but a successful moon landing today could serve as a powerful symbol of technological prowess in a renewed space race between the United States and China.

China has already put three vehicles on the moon over the past decade and has goals similar to the US in establishing a permanent base on the lunar surface.

There is plenty of room on the moon for both the US and China, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told CNN's Poppy Harlow this morning.

But the fraught geopolitical landscape on the moon is a big reason why the US has sought to update the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. The treaty outlines that space should remain a realm of peaceful exploration but has long been criticized as an outdated document.

The United States introduced a new set of principles, the Artemis Accords, in 2020.

But China is not one of those signatories.

"Now, of course, we're concerned about that because a lot of the so-called civilian space program with China ... that is a lot of military as well," Nelson added.

Even before Odysseus makes its thrilling plunge down to the lunar surface, the spacecraft is enduring a brutal environment as it circles the moon.

The spacecraft is expected to make around 12 complete laps around the moon, and each one puts the lander through wild temperature swings, according to a fact sheet from the company.

Lunar orbit also brings communications challenges.

As Odysseus orbits, ground controllers have about 75 minutes of communication with the spacecraft before it travels to the far side of the moon, where it's out of reach for about 45 minutes before swinging back to the near side.

Intuitive Machines is a Houston-based company just up the road from NASA's Johnson Space Center, or JSC. It was founded in 2013 by a trio of space enthusiasts:

The company reached a massive milestone in 2021 when NASA selected the company as a provider in its Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, program.

It's one of several private-sector companies that have been tasked by the space agency to get robotic landers to the moon as NASA works on separate plans to return its astronauts.

The contract for this mission was originally worth under $80 million. But it was later renegotiated, and — all told — Intuitive Machines could receive up to $118 million from NASA for this mission.

The company also went public last year, via a reverse merger. Its stock has been on a tear recently amid its successes in space, surging up about 80% over the past five days as of Thursday afternoon.

Intuitive Machines shared several possible landing times for Odysseus over the past several days, and the projected touchdown has only moved earlier.

The company has announced a new landing time of 4:24 p.m. ET — more than an hour sooner than previously announced.

Intuitive Machines has acknowledged the landing time was subject to change.

The company shared the reason for the update: "Flight controllers commanded a lunar correction maneuver to raise Odysseus’ orbit overnight and updated the anticipated landing time," according to a post on X.

The Odysseus lunar lander, nicknamed “Odie” or IM-1, is aiming to make the first touchdown of a US-made spacecraft on the moon in five decades on Thursday.

Its launch followed closely on the heels of a separate US lunar landing mission that failed in January. NASA has ramped up the development of robotic spacecraft via private partners to evaluate the lunar environment and identify key resources before it attempts to return astronauts to the moon later this decade.

Odie's journey to the moon: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket fired Odie into Earth’s orbit last week, blazing to speeds topping 24,600 miles per hour (about 40,000 kilometers per hour), according to Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based company that developed the spacecraft under contract with NASA through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

After burning through its fuel, the rocket detached from Odie, leaving the lunar lander to fly solo through space. The robotic explorer then consulted an onboard map of the stars so it could orient itself in space, pointing its solar panels toward the sun’s rays to charge its batteries.

The spacecraft entered orbit around the moon, which is roughly 250,000 miles (about 400,000 kilometers) away from Earth, on Wednesday morning, according to the company.

The first images from the Odysseus lunar lander provided a view of Earth from space as the craft made its way to the moon. After being launched last week, the lander is aiming to land on the moon's surface on Thursday.

More images to come: The spacecraft, nicknamed “Odie” or IM-1, also houses a camera system called EagleCam that was developed by students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. The device is set to pop off of the lunar lander as it approaches the surface and capture images of the vehicle’s descent.

“Hopefully, we’ll get a bird’s-eye view of that landing to share with the public,” Intuitive Machines CEO Stephen Altemus said.