More than 50 years after the end of the Apollo program, this Thursday an American company will attempt to land a space probe on the moon. So far, the success rate, regardless of whether it is a space agency or a private actor, is less than 50%. A further failure on February 22nd cannot therefore be ruled out.
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He is a new candidate in the race for the moon. The American space probe Odysseus from the Texas startup Intuitive Machines left Earth on February 16 and is scheduled to enter lunar orbit on Wednesday. The spacecraft will then orbit the star twelve times at an altitude of around 100 kilometers before attempting to land on the surface on February 22nd.
“The IM-1 lunar landing mission overcame numerous challenges and demonstrated exceptional resilience, innovation and teamwork. Intuitive Machines plans to land on the Moon on Thursday, February 22 at 4:49 p.m. CST”, which corresponds to 11:49 a.m. This was announced by the IM-1 mission team this Tuesday morning in a message published on the social network
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Destination, a 69-kilometer-wide lunar crater, is located in the Malaper Massif region, about 300 kilometers from the Moon's south pole. It is one of the thirteen sites selected by NASA for the Artemis 3 manned mission scheduled for 2026. The lunar landing attempt will be broadcast live on the NASA web channel and also on NASA's YouTube channel.
The Malapert massif is located about 300 kilometers from the moon's south pole. -NASA/GSFC/Arizona State UniversityA success rate of less than 50%
If the mission is successful, the Texas startup would make history by becoming the first private actor to achieve the feat of softly landing a robotic vehicle on the Moon, following the unsuccessful attempts by Israeli startups SpaceIL (2019) and Japan's Ispace (2023) . After the bitter failure of the American company Astrobotic last month, this new attempt is being closely scrutinized by NASA officials.
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More than 50 years after Apollo, landing on the moon remains a dangerous undertaking despite all the progress
The space agency has decided to outsource the sending of payloads – particularly scientific instruments – to the moon to private partners, a program called CLPS (for Commercial Lunar Payload Services). NASA has signed contracts with fourteen suppliers, including Intuitive Machines. But even more than fifty years after the end of the Apollo lunar research program, landing on the moon remains a major challenge.
As a reminder, the success rate of robotic landing missions, whether by a space agency or a private actor, is less than 50%. A further outage on February 22nd cannot therefore be ruled out.
Matthieu DELACHARLERY