Odysseus spacecraft on its side after landing on the moon, officials say

A private U.S. lunar lander tilted over at touchdown and ended up on its side near the moon’s south pole, hampering communications, company officials said Friday.

Intuitive Machines, the company that built the six-footed lander, initially said it was upright. But CEO Steve Altemus said Friday that the lander “caught a foot in the surface and tipped” and landed on its side, and, quite possibly, is leaning against a rock. He said the lander had come in too fast and may have snapped a leg.

“So far, we have quite a bit of operational capability even though we’re tipped over,” he said.

Some antennas were pointed toward the surface, limiting flight controllers’ ability to communicate and get the right data, Altemus said. The antennas were stationed high on the 4.3-metre lander to facilitate communications amid the hilly, cratered and shadowed south polar region.

Odysseus — the first U.S. lander in more than 50 years — is thought to be within a few kilometres of its intended landing site near the Malapert A crater, less than 300 kilometres from the south pole. NASA, which led the missions, wanted to get as close as possible to the pole to scout out the area before astronauts show up later this decade.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will attempt to pinpoint the lander’s location, as it flies overhead this weekend.

With Thursday’s touchdown, Intuitive Machines became the first private business to pull off a moon landing, a feat previously achieved by only five countries. The mission was sponsored in large part by NASA, whose experiments were on board. NASA paid $118 million US for the delivery under a program meant to jump-start the lunar economy.

One of the NASA experiments was pressed into service when the lander’s navigation system did not kick in. Intuitive Machines caught the problem in advance when it tried to use its lasers to improve the lander’s orbit. Otherwise, flight controllers would not have discovered the failure until it was too late, just five minutes before touchdown.

“Serendipity is absolutely the right word,” mission director Tim Crain said.