Odysseus Lunar Lander Faces Power Loss, Goes Dormant After Historic US Moon Landing Last Week

The Odysseus lunar lander, the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon in 50 years, has lost power and gone dormant. This development comes a week after a lopsided landing that hampered its operations and scientific output.

What Happened: The Odysseus lunar lander, built by Intuitive Machines, Inc. LUNR, lost power and went dormant on Thursday as it entered a frigid lunar nightfall. This effectively ended its mission, Reuters reported.

The Texas-based aerospace company, which was paid $118 million by NASA to build and fly Odysseus, received a final “farewell transmission” from the spacecraft before it went dark in the moon’s south pole region.

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Intuitive Machines’ ground control team will program Odysseus to “phone home” to the company’s ground control center in Houston if the spacecraft receives enough solar power to reawaken in three weeks with the next sunrise over its landing site.

Despite the challenges, NASA managed to extract some data from all six of its science payloads delivered by Odysseus. The company’s shares, which had experienced significant fluctuations during the mission, remained up about 20% from just before the launch, giving the company a market value of approximately $600 million.

Why It Matters: The Odysseus mission has been a rollercoaster ride, from its historic landing to its unexpected mishap and now its premature shutdown. The mission’s challenges have not gone unnoticed by investors, with Intuitive Machines’ stock experiencing significant fluctuations.

Despite the setbacks, some analysts remain optimistic about the company’s future, citing the learnings from this mission as a potential competitive advantage for future missions. This suggests that the Odysseus mission could serve as a valuable learning experience for Intuitive Machines, potentially strengthening its position in the space exploration industry.

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