Intuitive Machines’ spacecraft Odysseus lands after a 73-minute descent in apparently flawless touchdown near moon’s south pole
Odysseus moon landing: follow live
The United States has returned to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years after a privately-built spacecraft named Odysseus capped a nail-biting 73-minute descent from orbit with an apparently flawless touchdown near the moon’s south pole.
The so-called “soft landing” on Thursday, which the founder of Texas-based company Intuitive Machines had given only an 80% chance of succeeding, was designed to open a new era of lunar exploration as Nasa works towards a scheduled late-2026 mission to send humans back to the moon.