Thu. Oct 10th, 2024

Private company attempts first American moon landing since Apollo

A private company attempts the first American moon landing since Apollo

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Composite image of the Moon captured by the Galileo probe in 1992.< /p>Agence France-Presse

Crash or soft landing? The Texan company Intuitive Machines will attempt on Thursday to carry out the first moon landing of an American probe in more than 50 years, and at the same time become the first private company to successfully complete the maneuver.

The scheduled time of the moon landing has been moved forward to 3:24 p.m. Houston time, where the company's control room is located .

A maneuver was carried out during the night from Wednesday to Thursday to correct the altitude of the probe relative to the lunar surface, explained Intuitive Machines.

The Nova-C moon lander, which notably carries NASA scientific instruments, measures a little over four meters high. It took off last week from Florida and entered lunar orbit on Wednesday.

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from the LC-39A launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center with the Nova-C lunar lander from Intuitive Machines, Cape Canaveral, Florida, February 15, 2024.

The fully automated descent will begin approximately one hour before landing. The event can be followed live on the company and NASA websites.

Cameras and lasers will allow for the device to guide itself in real time. At 30 meters above sea level, the final, vertical descent will begin.

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Natasha Kumar

By Natasha Kumar

Natasha Kumar has been a reporter on the news desk since 2018. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining The Times Hub, Natasha Kumar worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my natasha@thetimeshub.in 1-800-268-7116

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