The U.S. lunar lander "Odysseus" was put into orbit and prepared for landing
Yuan Yuan. The lunar lander "Odysseus" developed by the American private enterprise "Intuition Machine" entered the lunar orbit on the 21st and is expected to try to land on the moon in the early morning of the 23rd, Beijing time.
Intuition Machine Company** released a message saying that "Odysseus" completed the orbit operation about 7 minutes after starting the thruster on the 21st, and is currently operating in an orbit 92 kilometers from the surface of the moon. According to the Associated Press, Odysseus completed its orbit on the far side of the moon, when communication with the Earth was interrupted, and contact with the ground was not restored until it reached the front side of the moon.
According to NASA** information, the "Odysseus" program landed in a crater at the south pole of the moon at 22:30 GMT on the 22nd (6:30 Beijing time on the 23rd). Before that, it will descend to an orbit about 10 kilometers above the lunar surface, which is also done on the far side of the moon.
Odysseus was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on board the SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on the 15th of this month. It plans to launch a seven-day scientific exploration mission on the lunar surface, including studying the interaction between the lander's engine plume and the lunar surface, radio astronomy, the interaction of space weather with the lunar surface, the lander's precision landing technology, and communication and navigation capabilities.
The "Odysseus" is a hexagonal column, 4 meters high and 1 meter wideAt 57 meters, it has six landing legs, and carries a variety of NASA scientific instruments and commercial payloads.
If the mission is successful, Odysseus will be the first American spacecraft to land on the moon in more than 50 years, and Intuition Machine will become the first private company to complete a mission to the moon. In January this year, another private American aerospace robotics company also launched a mission to the moon and launched the "Peregrine Falcon" lunar lander. However, the lander's propulsion system malfunctioned after launch, resulting in the failure of the plan. (End) (Special article by Xinhua News Agency).