Intuitive Machines Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Steve Altemus told the press that Odysseus, lying on its side on the Moon, “may have tripped over one of its legs because it landed too fast.”
“Despite being overturned, the vehicle has a lot of operational capability,” Altemus said.
In the company’s first statement, it was stated that Odysseus stood upright during his first landing on the Moon.
First lunar landing since 1972 with Odysseus
The spacecraft developed by the US private company Intuitive Machines for landing on the Moon within the scope of the “IM-1” mission was launched on February 15 from the Kennedy Space Center in the US state of Florida on a SpaceX-produced Falcon 9 rocket.
The spacecraft landed on the Moon at 2:23 a.m. on February 23, making it the first US private spacecraft to soft-land on the lunar surface since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
The 4.3-meter-high, six-legged carbon fiber and titanium lander also carried payloads for six different experiments NASA plans to use as part of the Artemis Mission.
NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to build and fly Odysseus as part of its efforts to commercialize lunar deliveries as part of its plans to put humans on the Moon in a few years.
