A moon lander developed by Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines was launched from Florida on Feb 15 on a mission to execute the first U.S. lunar touchdown in more than 50 years and the first by a privately owned spacecraft.
Around 48 minutes after launch, the six-legged lander was seen being freed from Falcon 9's upper stage approximately 139 miles above Earth and drifting away on its path to the moon.
According to webcast commentators, mission operations in Houston received the first radio signals from Odysseus shortly after the lander began an automatic process of powering up its systems and aligning itself in space.
Odysseus is expected to arrive at the destination on February 22, landing in crater Malapert A near the moon's south pole.
IM-1 is the latest demonstration of NASA's policy of paying for the usage of spacecraft constructed and operated by private businesses to slash the cost of the Artemis missions, envisioned as precursors to human exploration of Mars.