First private vehicle to ever land on the moon has sadly shut its eyes forever

The first privately constructed lunar lander to ever successfully land on the surface of the Moon has permanently faded, never to wake up again and communicate with its creators back on Earth.

The first US company to achieve a Moon landing was Houston-based Intuitive Machines, which partnered with NASA to construct the Odysseus lander, later nicknamed Odie. On February 22, the lunar lander descended to a location near the lunar south pole, and while Intuitive Machines announced the landing was a success, company CEO Steve Altemus later explained Odie was lying on its side. The phone-booth-sized lander tipped over from one or more of its landing legs, which were caught up on a rock during entry and snapped off.

Despite its undesired orientation, Odie was able to carry out its mission objectives to a reasonable degree, but unfortunately, its active time on the lunar surface has come to its end with Intuitive Machines officially announcing via its X account that the solar-powered spacecraft operated on the lunar surface for seven Earth days, "then went silent after the sun went down at its landing site". The company behind the historic spacecraft said, "This was the expected length of the lander's surface mission."

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The Sun's rays were expected to hit the location of the lander in late March and hopefully provide Odie with some energy via its solar panels. Mission control operators listened for Odie on March 20, but there was no communication from the lander - confirming what was projected: forever silence.

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