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Watch: First American spacecraft moon landing since 1972
An American spacecraft is on its way to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17, when New Mexican and former U.S. Sen. Harrison Schmitt, as well as Eugene A. Cernan and Ronald E. Evans, landed on the lunar surface in 1972.
This time, a private company is taking the trip, though NASA is the main sponsor and has equipped the vessel with technology to carry out experiments on board the spacecraft.
SpaceX’s Falcon rocket dispatched Intuitive Machines' lunar lander, dubbed Odysseus, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center last week to make the 230,000 miles trek to visit the moon.
The company will rely on laser technology that it tested multiple times at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico in 2021 and 2022.
So far, only the U.S., Russia, China, India and Japan have landed on the moon. If all goes well, this landing will be the first time a private company has succeeded a moon mission.
The craft is expected to land on the moon at 4:24 p.m. Mountain Time on Thursday.
