For the first time since 1972 a spacecraft launched from the U.S. has landed softly on the surface of the moon. And, for the first time ever, this successful extraterrestrial landing was achieved by a spacecraft built and operated by private industry rather than by a government space program.
At 6:23 P.M. EST a 14.1-foot-tall lander resembling a police booth on stilts descended to the moon’s surface on a ballooning blue flame of rocket exhaust. Seconds later, the lander’s six feet crunched into the dark soil of Malapert A, a crater nestled deep in the moon’s southern latitudes.
This robotic voyager, aptly nicknamed Odysseus, carries six scientific payloads on behalf of NASA. But crucially, the U.S. space agency isn’t running the mission: Odysseus is the first commercial spacecraft ever to land safely on another celestial body.
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