What's the frequency, Kenneth?
Posted on 02/22/2024 4:20:50 PM PST by Red Badger
An unmanned, robotic lunar lander launched by a private U.S. company landed on the moon Thursday evening.
“We can confirm, without a doubt, that our equipment is on the surface of the moon,” said Stephen Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based company that operated the Odysseus spacecraft. “Welcome to the moon.”
As it approached the surface of the moon, Odysseus lost contact with NASA, resulting in several anxious minutes for those who worked on the joint project. But after approximately 15 minutes of searching, officials confirmed that they were once again receiving signals from the spacecraft.
“A commercial lander named Odysseus, powered by a company called Intuitive Machines, launched up on a Space X rocket, carrying a bounty of NASA scientific instruments and bearing the dream of a new adventure, a new adventure in science, innovation and American leadership, well, all of that aced the landing of a lifetime,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said after contact had been reestablished. “Today for the first time in more than a half century, the U.S. has returned to the moon.”
Altemus had estimated that Odysseus had an 80% chance of successfully landing on the moon, citing previous failed attempts as an advantage. “We’ve stood on the shoulders of everybody who’s tried before us,” Altemus said.
It was the first American mission to land on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 and the first private spacecraft ever to make a soft landing there.
While it was a private mission, NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to deliver six instruments to the moon. And the U.S. space agency provided streaming video of the landing.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“My fame has reached the skies.
Sunny Ithaca is my home. Atop her stands our seamark,
Mount Neriton’s leafy ridges shimmering in the wind.” (Odyssey)
And now Odysseus’ fame has reached beyond the skies, to the moon.
The landing site is about 185 miles from the moon’s south pole................
Bereshith Launch date 22 February 2019, 01:45 UTC
Odyssey Landing date 22 February 2024 23:23 UTC
What's the frequency, Kenneth?
Let’s hope it does not encounter any hostile lunatics (or whatever the inhabitants of the moon are called).
A distinction WITH a difference.
Got to keep the Loonies on the path..................
Unmanned?? A little gender-assumption I think. Shouldn’t it be unpersoned?
Unpiloted.............?
Awesome accomplishment to send a craft 238,000 miles to the moon! …Still Interesting that we haven’t gotten a man further than 380 miles since 1972.?.? 🤔
But somehow we landed people who walked on the moon, with great comms and video via AT&T back to Nixon and others on earth 55 years ago.
Bwahahahahaha!!!
So they have updated Surveyor 3 mission? That’s what, 1966. Not 1972.
In two years they hope to do another (crewed) flyby, first done in 1968
Thank you Senator Proxmire (D) Wisconsin, for killing NASA
Looks like wrapping paper that I wrapped my Christmas presents in
That’s one reason it’s so difficult.
I do not understand orbital mechanics. But it is much, much easier to land in the equatorial regions, than upper or lower latitudes.
“Lunertics”——they’re kept in the LunerMax prison.
Question for the moon landing conspiracy: what rationale did the Soviets have for not pointing out it was fake?
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