Moon Stock Plummets After Odysseus Lunar Lander Tips Over. NASA Calls Landing a Success.

Barons via MSN ^ | February 24, 2024 | Al Root

[DoodleBob]

Stock in Intuitive Machines sharply dropped in after-hours trading Friday after the company’s Odyessus lunar lander tipped over when it landed on the moon’s surface. The extreme stock move shows just how hard it is to trade events that will move a small capitalization stock.

Intuitive and NASA held a news conference on Friday evening. The lander “is stable, near or at the intended landing site,” said Intuitive CEO Steve Altemus. One hiccup though—the lander is on its side.

Altemus said the craft was going 25,000 miles an hour in orbit and landed at about 6 miles an hour, with a horizontal speed of about 2 miles an hour—a comfortable walking pace. The company believes one of the lander’s feet caught on something on the way down, causing it to trip.

NASA’s associate administrator for space technology, Dr. Prasun Desai, still called the landing a success.“Congratulations to the Intuitive machines. An amazing successful landing,” he said.

Indeed, the spacecraft’s journey marked the first soft landing on the moon for a U.S. entity in some 50 years. What’s more, Odysseus landed on the moon autonomously—the first-ever such landing for an American company.

[DoodleBob]

[know.your.why]

I got this mental image of Elon Musk stomping around pissed off that his “peers” cant do this right. Prolly saying something like “people are comparing these clowns to me”!! Would be cool if he just threw something together..some lunar mission...maybe land a Tesla on the surface...I’d love to see that!

[adorno]

NASA Calls Landing a Success.

That's the modern day version of:

"Failure is not an option."

[BipolarBob]

Would be cool if he just threw something together..some lunar mission...maybe land a Tesla on the surface...I’d love to see that!

Great idea.

[Safrguns]

But it worked fine in the simulator!!!

[DesertRhino]

The Eagle has come to a stop, on it’s side....

One small step for man, one very public crash for mankind.

[Red Badger]

It’s just pining for the fjords.........

[NWFree]

They showed a graphic of a perfect landing on fake news and didn’t even mention it fell over. I think it was SeeBS

[adorno]

..maybe land a Tesla on the surface

That would be a 'short-range mission", with an explosive end.

[Empire_of_Liberty]

And the Japanese lander just did the same thing.

The Man In The Moon is laughing at us!

[fidelis]

The lander “is stable, near or at the intended landing site,” said Intuitive CEO Steve Altemus. One hiccup though—the lander is on its side.

[billorites]

All in accordance with Fudd’s Law: If you push something hard enough, it will fall over.

[linMcHlp]

Not a landing.

An arrival.

[SpaceBar]

Next time try a hamster ball where there is no preferred ‘up’.

[DoodleBob]

This, is an ex-space craft.

To boldly trip and fall where only the Japanese have tripped before.

[Deo volente]

This is like Joe’s “successful” management of the country that we keep hearing about.
Nothing to see here. Move along.

[telescope115]

I’m no expert on orbital mechanics, but escape velocity from Earth is
25,000 mph. The lander was orbiting a smaller body- the Moon. How could the lander be traveling at 25,000 mph in orbit around the Moon and still be orbiting ?

[DeplorablePaul]

Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 72 with the computing power of a Commodore 64. Maybe the lander needs a pilot.

[Chainmail]

I am a reasonably experienced mechanical Engineer - and I can't help but wonder which part of that program Management team designed that tall, thin lander with that narrow and thin landing gear lashup. Has no one ever looked at the Moon's surface and not noticed it's irregularity? Have none of their engineer's learned about Centers of Gravity?

I mean, it got there and it hit its aimpoint, more or less and it didn't smash into the surface - but the simplest part of the mission - to land right side up - failed?

Did DEI strike again?

[Leaning Right]

People don’t understand. The Moon is possessed by an evil spirit. And the spirit will very briefly laugh when it does an evil thing. Here’s a photo I was lucky enough to get last Friday evening.