Liftoff of a rocket carrying a private American moon lander

2024-02-15 12:00:38

This content was published on February 15, 2024 – 10:00

(Keystone-ATS) After technical problems the day before, a rocket carrying the lander of a young American company took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, according to images broadcast live.

Takeoff of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took place at 1:06 a.m. Thursday in Florida (7:06 a.m. Swiss).

A first launch attempt had to be abandoned during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. The operation is more delicate than usual takeoffs for SpaceX, which must fill the lander with its cryogenic fuel (liquid methane and oxygen), just before filling its own rocket.

A problem with the methane temperature was encountered during the first attempt, leading to a postponement.

The mission, named IM-1, carries the moon lander developed by the Texan company Intuitive Machines, founded in 2013.

“Confirmed: the Nova-C lander has detached and continues its journey to the Moon,” wrote NASA, the American space agency, on the social network X.

After takeoff, once the lander was detached from the upper stage of the rocket, communication had to be established with the Intuitive Machines control room, located in Houston, Texas.

On the moon

A first thrust of the engine is then planned, in order to check its operation and adjust the trajectory towards the Moon.

The trip will be quick: if everything goes as hoped, the device will attempt to land on the Moon next week, February 22.

India and Japan recently successfully landed on the lunar surface, becoming the fourth and fifth countries to achieve the operation, following the Soviet Union, the United States and China.

But several private companies, including another American company, have failed to reproduce this feat.

If Intuitive Machines succeeds, it would be a historic milestone for the space sector, which would also mark the first landing of an American spacecraft on the Moon since the end of the Apollo program, more than 50 years ago.

Lunar South Pole

The model of the lander sent is called Nova-C, and measures more than four meters high. The copy used for this first mission was named Odysseus.

It is carrying six private cargoes, including sculptures by contemporary artist Jeff Koons representing the phases of the Moon.

But above all it carries six scientific instruments from NASA, the main client for this trip.

The mission is part of a new program called CLPS, set up by the American space agency, which has tasked private companies with taking scientific equipment to the Moon, in order to prepare for the return of astronauts.

By relying on the private sector, NASA says it can send more material, more frequently and for less than with vehicles belonging to it.

The contract signed by NASA for this first Intuitive Machines mission amounts to $118 million.

The planned landing site is a crater near the Moon’s south pole, which is still little explored.

The lunar south pole is important for NASA, because it is there that it wants to land its astronauts from 2026 at the earliest, as part of the Artemis missions.

The reason: there is water there in the form of ice, which might be exploited.

The six scientific instruments on board should make it possible to study this particular environment.

Four cameras will, for example, observe the descent phase and the dust projected during landing, in order to compare its effects to those of the Apollo moon landings, carried out closer to the equator.

Several missions planned

The first American company, Astrobotic, also under contract with NASA for the CLPS program, failed to reach the Moon in January.

A new Astrobotic test, as well as two other Intuitive Machines missions (IM-2 and IM-3), are already planned for this year.

A third American company, Firefly Aerospace, is also due to attempt the adventure in 2024.

Tests by other companies, Israeli and Japanese, ended in crashes in 2019 and 2023.

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