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Intuitive Machines shares rose 30% after-hours on Friday after the space exploration company said its lunar lander Odysseus tipped over on its side while landing near the moon’s south pole, disrupting communications with Earth. It fell more than that.
Intuitive machine LUNR,
Chief Executive Officer Steve Altemus said Friday that Odysseus “has set foot on the surface.” [of the moon] The plane tipped over on its side while landing on Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
Altemus said that while the spacecraft still has “significant operational capability,” part of its antenna is pointed toward the lunar surface, limiting its ability to communicate with flight controllers and send data. Ta. He said the lander may have descended so quickly that it broke one of its six legs and is now leaning against a rock.
The news sent Houston-based Intuitive Machines’ stock price down 31.7% in after-hours trading after rising 15.8% in Friday’s regular trading following Odysseus’ landing. The company initially I said the spaceship was upright. On Thursday, it became the first commercial lander to successfully reach the moon, but given the complexity of the mission, the extent of its success may now be in doubt.
Odysseus was also the first American spacecraft to reach the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, carrying scientific and technological equipment on behalf of NASA. The space agency is sponsoring and supporting the mission, which launched on February 15, with the aim of returning astronauts to the moon as early as 2026 through the Artemis program.
Other commercial moon landing attempts have also faced problems in recent years. In 2019, Israel’s Beresheet attempted to become the first civilian lander to the moon, but crashed during the landing attempt. Four years later, Japan’s civilian Hakuto R mission also failed to make a “soft landing” on the moon.
Last month, U.S.-based private space company Astrobotic Technology completed its arduous mission to land the Peregrine lander on the moon.
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