Feb 23 (Reuters) – A space apparatus constructed and flown by Texas-based organization Instinctive Machines arrived close to the moon’s south pole on Thursday, the principal U.S. score on the lunar surface in the greater part a long period and the very first accomplished by the confidential area.
NASA, with a few examination instruments on board the vehicle, hailed the arrival as a significant accomplishment in its objective of sending a crew of financially flown shuttle on logical exploring missions to the moon in front of an arranged return of space travelers there not long from now.
But initial communications problems following Thursday’s landing raised questions about whether the vehicle may have been left impaired or obstructed in some way.
The uncrewed six-legged robot lander, dubbed Odysseus, touched down at about 6:23 p.m. EST (2323 GMT), the company and NASA commentators said in a joint webcast of the landing from Intuitive Machines’ mission operations center in Houston.