The Odysseus lunar lander is experiencing some issues as it gets closer to making its descent to the surface.
“It’s white-knuckle time. Their ability to land is not with the radar, but with light pulses called Lidar — and it is on the blink," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told CNN's Jake Tapper, less than an hour away from the estimated touchdown time.
Odysseus' own system wasn't working exactly as intended.
But there are six NASA payloads on board the rover, nicknamed "Odie," and one of them is a Lidar. Nelson said scientists are trying to patch that NASA Lidar to the spacecraft and its control system.
If that doesn't work, "they would keep working the problem," he said.
"At 6:10 (p.m. ET) they’re to do a controlled descent — they would waive that descent off for one more try at about 8:30 this evening. But that would be the last chance that they would have to land," Nelson added.
Early indications were that the spacecraft was successfully using the NASA Lidar, according to the Intuitive Machines livestream.