The prospect of privately-funded space exploration reaching new frontiers has captured the imagination of entrepreneurs and space enthusiasts alike. This dream edged closer to reality in the early hours of Thursday morning, as Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its ambitious Odysseus lunar lander on a pioneering mission to the moon’s south pole.
Liftoff occurred at 1:05am ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying the spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket through cloudy skies illuminated by the glow of its engines. For SpaceX, the launch marks another milestone in its rapid evolution from upstart to space industry leader. If successful, Odysseus would become the first private spacecraft to achieve a lunar landing, and the first craft of any kind to land on the moon since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
The Odysseus lander itself is an unmanned robotic spacecraft roughly 13 feet tall and 5 feet wide, weighing over 4,000 pounds at launch. Built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, it carries an array of scientific instruments and experimental technologies to scout the lunar surface and environment. The craft also bears a small artistic payload – a disk etched with images by sculptor Jeff Koons to symbolize humanity’s return to the moon.
The launch was originally planned for Wednesday but postponed due to a technical issue with the lander’s methane fuel system. SpaceX engineers worked swiftly to identify and resolve the problem, allowing the mission to proceed seamlessly just a day later.
The launch is only the first leg of a long journey. After separating from the Falcon 9 rocket, which successfully landed itself back on Earth for reuse, Odysseus will spend 6 days cruising through space before entering lunar orbit. If all goes according to plan, it will touch down in the moon’s south polar region on February 22nd and spend about two weeks operating on the lunar surface.
A brief history of private lunar landing attempts
All previous lunar landing attempts made by private companies have failed so far:
- A malfunction with propulsion doomed United Launch Alliance’s Peregrine lander last month.
- Japan-based ispace lost contact with its lander during landing attempts last April.
- Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft crashed into the lunar surface in 2019.
Odysseus represents the vanguard of a new era in space exploration, led by private companies unencumbered by the bureaucracy and budget constraints of national space agencies. Several other private moon landing attempts have been made recently, though all failed for various technical reasons. With its vast resources and engineering expertise, SpaceX appears poised to succeed where others have fallen short.
Many challenges doubtless lie ahead, but the launch of Odysseus is an important leap forward. Its success would help pave the way for more ambitious private missions to establish permanent bases and mine resources on the moon in the coming decades. For now, all eyes turn skyward as the spacecraft makes its lonely journey to an ancient, silent world.
