After a short journey to the moon, Intuitive Machinery's NovaC "Odysseus" lunar lander finally landed on the moon and set multiple records, making it the first lunar lander manufactured by a private company in the United States to land on the moon. Additionally, it marks an important milestone since the beginning of NASA's Artemis program, with NovaC also being the first U.S. lander to land on the moon since the Apollo era.
Ahead of today's landing, Intuitive Machines and NASA gave multiple updates on possible landing times, the last of which was that the lander would make one more orbit of the moon before attempting to land at the lunar south pole. Today's landing comes after Odysseus adjusted its lower lunar orbit. However, the subsequent increase in the moon's orbit caused another change in the schedule, bringing it forward.
The lander was initially scheduled to touch down on the moon at 6:24 p.m. ET, but Intuitive Machines' mission control center in Texas was still unable to confirm a soft landing 13 minutes after touchdown. However, mission control did confirm at the time that NovaC's equipment had arrived on the lunar surface at 6:23 p.m. and was transmitting data. Mission controller Dr. Tim Klein confirmed the event, sharing: "Houston, Odysseus has found his new home."
NovaC's moonshot is the culmination of a startup-like effort by Intuitive Machines, which works 18-hour days to test engines, employs generous hiring policies, hires qualified technicians on the spot, and builds advanced carbon composite structures. To ensure that the lunar lander is both strong and light, Intuitive Machines used a honeycomb aluminum core, composite struts and panels, and linerless composite propellant tanks to build its most important component, the main engine.
This main engine greatly shortens the time it takes the spacecraft to fly to the moon, and is also responsible for reducing the speed of the spacecraft when it lands. Unlike spacecraft used to land on Earth, such as SpaceX's Dragon, lunar landers don't have a thick atmosphere to slow them down. Therefore, they must carefully calibrate their thrusters to ensure a soft landing at the right speed without causing damage to them.
The lander's mission brief plans to bring a host of instruments to the lunar surface. These include a camera for taking third-person views of the lander and another camera for taking pictures of the Milky Way. Another important project on NovaC is LonestarData's data center technology demonstration project. The project, called "Independence," aims to test using the lunar surface as a backup for storing data. Lonestar demonstrated the concept in space when NovaC traveled to the moon, delivering the Declaration of Independence to the lander and receiving a Bill of Rights in return.
While Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR ) stock has soared since its lander successfully began its journey into space, the stock's gains have eased a bit ahead of the landing today. However, following the successful landing, the stock rose again, rising more than 30% in after-hours trading, and the capital market responded very positively, making Intuitive Machines one of the best-performing stocks so far in 2024.