To put this in perspective, here is a list of lunar missions ever attempted [1]. Intuitive Machines is tied with JAXA, the ESA and ISRO in terms of successful landings [2], eclipsed only by the U.S., China and former Soviet Union (though not current Russia [3]).
Fun facts: Kazakhstan was the last to leave the Soviet Union and Baikonur is still rented to Russia until 2050. Let's hope renting it doesn't go sour like it did with the naval facilities in Ukraine's Crimea...
Clarification to the title: the spacecraft was developed by a private company, but it was publicly funded by way of NASA, as part of their Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program: https://www.nasa.gov/commercial-lunar-payload-services/
> how is that different to Grumman building the Apollo moon lander?
NASA wholly owned and operated the lunar lander after it was built. Intuitive Machines owns and is operating the machines it built for NASA and can use the technology for other customers.
Grumman wasn’t operating their own Mission Control — NASA did. But NASA isn’t operating this mission, similar to how they don’t operate SpaceX missions even if they are funding them.
Wait does this mean that private corporations from the United States will compete against national governments in space? If so it’s history repeating itself and the private corporations will probably win again. Great news and proof that it’s working bravo!
Looks like, the race is on , to start harvesting minerals from the moon.There are still big challenges like sourcing water and setting up base camps to start with but if we can deploy mining machines, this could be a gamechanger.
I see that one of the instruments on board is supposed to measure space weather interactions with the moon. They landed just in time to catch data from an X6.7 flare that popped this afternoon and should arrive there before the lander goes dark.
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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_Moon#M...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lunar_probes
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_25
NASA wholly owned and operated the lunar lander after it was built. Intuitive Machines owns and is operating the machines it built for NASA and can use the technology for other customers.
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It’s about as ‘private’ as the F-22.
https://www.construction-physics.com/p/building-apollo
Though notably here, the CEO is a former NASA cadre.
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"And that's why they're everywhere"!
https://twitter.com/coastal8049/status/1760865713948885120?s...