Produced by: Tarun Mishra Designed by: Muskan Arora
SpaceX successfully launched the Nova-C lander from Kennedy Space Station, developed by Intuitive Machines under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, marking the space agency's second endeavour to land a private spacecraft on the lunar surface.
Part of NASA's broader Artemis campaign, the mission aims to deliver an array of scientific and technological payloads to the Moon, focusing on various research areas such as plume-surface interactions, space weather, and precision landing technologies.
Named Odysseus, the Nova-C lander carries 12 payloads, including instruments like SCALPSS (Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies) designed to observe engine plume interaction with the lunar surface, aiding in future mission planning and ensuring safe lunar landings.
Scheduled to touch down on the lunar surface on February 22, the Nova-C lander aims to achieve the historic feat of becoming the first private spacecraft to successfully land on the Moon, paving the way for future lunar exploration endeavors.
The mission highlights SpaceX's pivotal role in advancing space travel, leveraging its reusable rocket technology and collaboration with NASA to ferry cargo and astronauts to destinations such as the International Space Station.
This marks NASA's second attempt to send a private mission to the Moon following the failure of the Peregrine lander, which encountered a fuel leak shortly after launch and ultimately crashed back to Earth.