US makes history with first Moon landing since 1972, but there's one major problem

The first US company to achieve a Moon landing is Houston-based Intuitive Machines, which partnered with NASA to construct and send the Odysseus lunar lander to the surface of Earth's closest neighbor. The scientific community held their breath as Odysseus descended to its designated landing location near the lunar south pole, and on February 22, the touchdown was confirmed. Odysseus is equipped with NASA science instruments and tech demonstrations that are expected to still be functional after Odysseus encountered its big problem.

While the landing was deemed successful and Intuitive Machines announced Odysseus was "upright", Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus announced during a press conference that the aforementioned claim the lunar lander was upright was based on "stale telemetry" sourced from the lander's fuel gauges, and Odysseus is likely laying on its side. Altemus said that the phone-booth-sized spacecraft likely tipped over due to one of its feet being caught up on a rock during entry, or it's stuck in a crevasse, or simply lying on a lunar slope.

"We're hopeful to get pictures and really do an assessment of the structure and assessment of all the external equipment," Mr Altemus told reporters. "So far, we have quite a bit of operational capability even though we're tipped over. And so that's really exciting for us, and we are continuing the surface operations mission as a result of it."

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