THE historic Odysseus Moon lander was left laying on its side after tripping over its own feet.
The spacecraft touched down on Thursday night in the first privately funded space landing.
2
2
The craft’s laser-based range finders failed during the flight but managed to avoid a crash landing.
However experts believe the six-legged craft craft has now tripped over its own feet, reports Reuters.
CEO Stephen Altemus, whose company built and flew the lander, has told reporter that spacecraft is believed to have caught one of its landing feet on the uneven lunar surface and tipped over.
The craft is thought to be propped up by a rock, he added.
Crucially, the company boss said that his team still had communication with the craft.
But he added that two of the spacecraft’s antennae were left pointed at the surface, which will limit communications.
The mission will help advance landing technology for future missions and also help establish how landing can disturb the lunar surface.
Mr Altemus said: “If you think back from Apollo days, there wasn’t one mission that went absolutely perfectly so you have to be adaptable.
Most read in Tech
“You have to be innovative and you have to persevere, and we persevered. Right up until the last moments to get this soft touchdown like we wanted to.”
Nasa is hoping to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon in Autumm 2026 after announcing earlier this year that timetables had been delayed by about a year as safety was a top priority.
Inside lux Spaceship Neptune Excelsior orb taking ultra-rich to SPACE where £100k-a-ticket guests will tuck on plush food among the stars
The Artemis programme will see construction of the Lunar Gateway – a space station where astronauts will be able to live and work.
The successful mission, IM-1, comes a month after another US spacecraft, Peregrine, failed to touch down on the lunar surface after a fuel leak.
The failure of Peregrine, operated by US company Astrobotic, marked the third time a private company had been unable to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface.
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
