Free Republic

An artist's conception shows Japan's SLIM lander in its upended position on the lunar surface. (Credit: JAXA) Japan’s space agency didn’t expect its wrong-side-up SLIM moon lander to revive itself after powering down for a circuit-chilling lunar night on Feb. 1. But that’s exactly what happened. “Last night, a command was sent to SLIM and a response received, confirming that the spacecraft has made it through the lunar night and maintained communication capabilities!” the SLIM mission team reported today in a posting to X / Twitter. This wasn’t SLIM’s first resurrection: The boxy spacecraft touched down and tumbled onto its...

A private U.S. lunar lander is expected to stop working Tuesday, its mission cut short after landing sideways near the south pole of the moon. Intuitive Machines, the Houston company that built and flew the spacecraft, said Monday it will continue to collect data until sunlight no longer shines on the solar panels. Based on the position of Earth and the moon, officials expect that to happen Tuesday morning. That’s two to three days short of the week or so that NASA and other customers had been counting on. The lander, named Odysseus, is the first U.S. spacecraft to land...

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...