This story first appeared in Talk Of Titusville . Reproduced with permission.
Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN
A rarity is becoming commonplace lately here on the Space Coast, as SpaceX successfully launched two Falcon 9 rockets within eight hours of each other from the Eastern Range, returning both safely to the ground at the company’s Cape Canaveral landing zones.
First up was USSF-124, carrying a military payload for the US Space Force, and the second was Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 NASA CLPS mission to the moon.
NASA CLPS / Intuitive Machines IM-1
At 1:05 AM EST, SpaceX launched NASA CLPS payload to orbit from launch pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center l aboard a Falcon 9. Approximately eight and one-half minutes later, the first stage touched down safely at Landing Zone 1 at CCSFS, approximately 8.8 miles from where it had launched minutes earlier.
After safely reaching orbit, the Intuitive Machines ‘Odysseus’ lander deployed from the Falcon 9 second stage, completing SpaceX’s part of the mission. Shortly afterward, IM confirmed Odysseus had contacted the company’s mission operations center in Houston and that the spacecraft was stable and receiving solar power.
NASA Administrator Statement
Odysseus will make a nine-day journey to the Moon, after which is will attempt to be the first successful American soft-landing on the lunar surface since Apollo 17 in 1972. In a press release on February 15, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, “NASA scientific instruments are on their way to the Moon – a giant leap for humanity as we prepare to return to the lunar surface for the first time in more than half a century,”
He added, “These daring Moon deliveries will not only conduct new science at the Moon, but they are supporting a growing commercial space economy while showing the strength of American technology and innovation. We have so much to learn through CLPS flights that will help us shape the future of human exploration for the Artemis Generation.”
As part of Project Artemis, in May 2019, the agency awarded a task order for scientific payload delivery to Intuitive Machines to build and fly Odysseus and IM-1. The spacecraft will “Demonstrate autonomous navigation,” according to a press release from NASA.
Odysseus’s Destination
The landing site selected for this mission is Malapert A, a satellite crater to Malapert, a 69 km crater in the Moon’s south pole region. Named after Charles Malapert, a 17th-century Belgian astronomer, the area around the landing site is believed to be made of lunar highland material, similar to Apollo 16’s landing site in the in the Descartes Highlands.
Photo: NASA
Experiments Aboard Odysseus
- ILO-X International Lunar Observatory Instrument
- Laser Retro-Reflector Array, a NASA Instrument to reflect light.
- Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing, a NASA Instrument
- Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator NASA Instrument
- Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies NASA Instrument
- Radiowave Observations at the Lunar Surface (ROLSES), a NASA / University of Colorado Boulder Instrument
- Tiger Eye 1, a Louisiana State University Instrument
- EagleCAM Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University CubeSat
- Lunaprise Galactic Legacy Labs Memorial
- Moon Phases Pace Verso / 4Space / NFMoon Sculpture
NASA said that “the Lunar Node-1 experiment, or LN-1, is a radio beacon designed to support precise geolocation and navigation observations for landers, surface infrastructure, and astronauts, digitally confirming their positions on the Moon relative to other craft, ground stations, or rovers on the move. These radio beacons can also be used in space to help with orbital maneuvers and guide landers to a successful touchdown on the lunar surface.”
