One day after its historic landing, the first private spacecraft on the moon is in good condition but has toppled over, the company that built it reported on Friday.
The spacecraft, named Odysseus, set down in the moon’s south pole region on Thursday evening, the first U.S. vehicle to land softly on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Initially, Intuitive Machines, which built Odysseus, said that the craft had landed upright, but a subsequent analysis of data showed that it had come to rest at an angle.
That means the spacecraft’s antennas are not pointed at Earth, limiting the amount of data that can be sent back and forth.
Engineers at Intuitive are still trying to extract more information from the spacecraft.
Persons:
Odysseus
Organizations:
Engineers
Locations:
U.S