Tipped over robot on the Moon sends back photos of its historic landing

Odysseus, the lunar lander that made history on February 22 when it touched down on the surface of the moon just 190 miles from the lunar south pole.

The landing of Odysseus marked the first time a privately built lander has ever touched down on the Moon, while also being the first US-built vehicle to do so since the Apollo 17 mission conducted in 1972. The company behind Odysseus is Houston-based Intuitive Machines, which took to its X account to share images captured by Odysseus during its descent to the lunar surface. The company posted three photos and according to Intuitive Machines they are the "closest observations of any spaceflight mission to the south pole region of the moon".

More specifically, these images were captured at just 100 feet above the lunar surface while Odysseus' main engine throttled down from a staggering 24,000 mph to almost zero. Unfortunately, the landing wasn't completely perfect as Intuitive Machines believes that Odysseus tipped over shortly after its touchdown, which is causing delays with sending/receiving data. Despite the lunar lander being tipped over its still able to carry out its scientific objectives as some of its solar panels are in the right position to gather energy, while none of NASA's instruments appear to damaged.

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