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

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.

The Odysseus lunar lander, nicknamed “Odie," is on a scouting mission of sorts to the moon. The spacecraft is designed to assess the lunar environment ahead of NASA’s current plan to return a crewed mission to the moon through the Artemis program in late 2026.

If the landing is successful on Thursday, Odie is expected to operate for seven days on the lunar surface before darkness falls on the landing site at the moon's south pole, plunging it into freezing temperatures.

Packed on board the lunar lander are six NASA science and technology payloads. They include a radio receiver system that will study lunar plasma, which is created by solar winds and other charged particles raining down on the moon’s surface.

Other payloads will test technology that could be used on future lunar landing missions, such as a new sensor that could potentially help guide precision landings.

The Odysseus lunar lander is aiming to make history on Thursday — but landing on the moon will be a dangerous feat.

If the landing fails, it will join a growing list of missions that have unsuccessfully sought a lunar touchdown. Last month, the first US-built lunar lander to launch in five decades, Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine, was hampered by a critical fuel leak. That came after two failed missions from other countries in 2023: one from Russia and another from a company based in Japan.

China, India and Japan are so far the only nations to have soft-landed vehicles on the moon in the 21st century.

A phone booth-size spacecraft called Odysseus, or IM-1, is set to take on a challenge no vehicle launched from the United States has attempted in more than 50 years: landing on the moon. The last time the US landed a spacecraft on the moon's surface was its robotic Surveyor 1 in 1966.

But the lunar landers of the 21st century, like Odysseus, are attempting to accomplish many of the same goals the US had during the space race at a small fraction of the price.

At the peak of the Apollo program, NASA’s budget comprised over 4% of all government spending. Today, the space agency’s budget is one-tenth the size, accounting for only 0.4% of all federal spending, even as it seeks to return American astronauts to the moon under the Artemis program.

NASA is attempting to drastically reduce prices by outsourcing the design of small, robotic spacecraft to the private sector through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS. If the landing is successful, Odysseus will be the first commercial spacecraft ever to soft-land on the moon.