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

Odysseus is heading for a landing site near Malapert A, an impact crater near the moon's south pole.

NASA describes it like this:

The space agency said it chose this landing site for Intuitive Machines' first mission because it wanted to learn more about the lunar environment and how communications function in this area.

And there's a key reason why: NASA wants to scout the lunar south pole because the space agency believes it's the best location to set up a future astronaut base.

An apparent issue with Odysseus' navigation systems will force the lander to rely on experimental technology.

"Intuitive Machines made the decision to reassign the primary navigation sensors from Odysseus....to use the sensors on NASA's Navigation Doppler Lidar," according to the webcast.

The NDL payload is an experimental technology that aimed to test out how future landers would make more precise landings on the moon. It’s designed to shoot laser beams to the ground to give exact measurements of speed and direction of flight, according to Farzin Amzajerdian, NASA's principal investigator for the instrument.

But it'll serve more than an experimental role as Odysseus heads to the moon.

"They did some checks, and they're performing very well," according to Gary Jordan, a NASA communications manager, on the livestream.

Before it attempts to land on the moon, the lunar lander Odysseus, or IM-1, needs to slow its speed by about 4,026 miles per hour (about 6,500 kilometers per hour) to have a soft touchdown.

The spacecraft is on track to land around 6:24 p.m. ET Thursday near the lunar south pole.

Success is not guaranteed. Overall, more than half of all lunar landing attempts have ended in failure — tough odds for a feat humanity first pulled off nearly 60 years ago.

While technology has advanced in the past five decades, the fundamental challenges of landing on the moon remain the same. Here's what it will have to overcome:

Odysseus' descent won't go exactly as Intuitive Machines previously mapped out.

"This is a dynamic situation ... We'll update you later in the broadcast," said Gary Jordan, a communication manager at NASA, on the livestream.

Jordan added that an engine burn the company chose to execute overnight eliminated the need to perform a 10-second "deorbit insertion" burn, or DOI.

The spacecraft is now expected to continue decreasing its altitude over the next hour until "the breaking burn," according to the webcast.

Odysseus can't offer live footage of its landing attempt. The spacecraft isn't equipped with a video recorder capable of sharing its journey.

But Intuitive Machines will be sharing computer-generated graphics that are based on data delivered directly from the robotic explorer. So while it's not a live look, what appears on the livestream should be a fairly close representation of what the spacecraft is currently doing in lunar orbit.

That is, until about 10 minutes before landing.

After that, we won't be seeing live data as Odysseus begins its perilous final descent. But, if all goes well, there should be only about a 15-second delay before flight controllers confirm whether the spacecraft made it to the surface safely, according to Intuitive Machines.

The livestream is underway and you can watch at the top of this page.

This post has been updated to reflect the livestream is underway.

Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 lander, also called Odysseus or “Odie,” is mere miles from the lunar surface as it aims to make history — becoming the first commercial spacecraft to soft-land on the moon.

Odysseus is expected to make first contact with the moon’s surface around 6:24 p.m. ET. The vehicle will use its methane-fueled engine on board to steer toward the surface and rapidly reduce its speed by 4,000 miles per hour (about 6,400 kilometers per hour).

Here's what will happen in space:

“Those are the most dynamic times,” Intuitive Machines CEO told CNN in an interview earlier this month. “And those are the ones that we're going to be just on the edge of our seat.”

The companies and governments dashing for the moon today are aiming for cheaper price points as they implement modern technology.

That's the underlying goal behind NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS (pronounced "clips"), which sponsored Intuitive Machines and the Odysseus lander for this mission.

And the companies participating in CLPS, including Intuitive Machines, are OK with a bit of risk and imperfection, according to Greg Autry, the director of space leadership at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management.

For its part, even NASA acknowledges its partners may not have a 100% success rate on these early missions.

Already there are additional CLPS missions lined up for later this year:

That said, a successful landing today would certainly mark a welcome win for this nascent NASA program and Intuitive Machines.

Odysseus has already made a bit of history on its journey through space.

The vehicle is powered by a single engine that is fueled by liquid oxygen, or LOX, and liquid methane, which are tricky propellants because they have to remain at super-chilled temperatures.

The spacecraft is also the first to ever use those fuels while in orbit.

Last week offered some nail-biting moments when Intuitive Machines opted to delay the first attempt to ignite the engine, which was expected the afternoon of February 15, saying communications outages were impacting ground controllers' ability to collect crucial data about how this novel engine performed.

But onlookers breathed a sigh of relief the next day when Intuitive Machines confirmed the engine came to life without a hitch.

But why did the company take a chance on using these propellants for such a risky mission? Intuitive Machines cites two reasons for the choice:

Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based company that developed the Odysseus spacecraft under contract with NASA, estimates it has about an 80% chance of safely landing on the moon, according to CEO Stephen Altemus.

One advantage is that the company bore witness to some previous, failed attempts, he said.

Even NASA isn't expecting a 100% success rate for these early missions, which are carried out under the space agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative.

“We've always viewed these initial CLPS deliveries as being kind of a learning experience,” said Joel Kearns, the deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, during a February 13 briefing. “We knew going into this … we didn't believe that success was assured.”