Odysseus becomes first private spacecraft to land on the moon

A spacecraft built and flown by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines landed near the south pole of the moon, the first U.S. touchdown on the lunar surface in more than half a century and the first ever achieved entirely by the private sector. The six-legged robot lander, dubbed Odysseus, touched down at about 6:23 p.m. EST (2323 GMT), the company and NASA commentators said in a joint webcast of the landing from Intuitive Machines’ mission operations center in Houston. The landing, one day after the spacecraft reached lunar orbit and a week after its launch from Florida, was confirmed by signals beamed back some 239,000 miles (384,000 km) to mission control. #moon #texas #lunar Read the full article here: Subscribe to The Telegraph with our special offer: just £1 for 3 months. Start your free trial now: