Intuitive Machines IM1 mission lands on the moon worlds first private company create history
According to the website of Intuitive Machines, the lander named Odysseus, sent under the IM-1 mission, has set foot on the moon. Company CEO Steve Altemus has said, “We are on the surface and doing transmission. Welcome to the Moon.
All the missions that have landed on the Moon till date were missions of government agencies. Years ago, when humans reached the moon, that mission was made successful by the American space agency NASA. Government agencies of Russia and China have also sent their missions to the moon. Last year, India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission, which was a mission of India’s government agency ISRO, made a successful landing on the Moon.
On Friday, this is the first time that a moon lander of a private company has set foot on the moon. This was first attempted by an Israeli company in 2019, but it failed. Last year, a Japanese private company also sent its mission to the moon, but it crashed during landing. Now intuitive machines have achieved this success.
breaths held till the last moment
According to media reports, the engineers associated with Mission Control remained holding their breath till the last moment. The landing was not confirmed until minutes after the scheduled landing. Engineers were again setting up communication with the lander. Eventually a signal was received, which confirmed that the lander had landed on the lunar surface.
Mission reached the moon in record 8 days
IM-1 mission reached the moon in record 8 days. On February 15, it took off with the help of SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket. The mission went to the moon on the same route by which the Apollo mission was sent about 50 years ago. American space agency NASA had signed a contract worth about thousand crore rupees with the company for this mission.
After landing on the lunar surface, the Odysseus lander will operate for 7 days.
