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How to watch Intuitive Machines land Odysseus on the moon on Thursday

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Intuitive Machines-1 Lunar Landing (Official NASA Broadcast)

Intuitive Machines will attempt to become the first commercial company to achieve a soft landing on the moon this week. If it succeeds in successfully touching down its Odysseus spacecraft on Thursday, it will also mark the first soft lunar landing by the U.S. since the final Apollo mission more than five decades ago.

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The Texas-based company, which has been contracted by NASA to send Odysseus to the moon as part of the space agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program, launched its lander aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center three days ago.

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A mission update provided by Intuitive Machines on Sunday shared some amazing Earth images taken by Odysseus. At the same time, the company confirmed that the spacecraft is making excellent progress as it continues its journey toward the moon.

The next crucial phase of the mission will take place on Wednesday when the team inserts Odysseus into a lunar orbit. Assuming that goes to plan, the spacecraft will be all set for its all-important descent the following day.

The main goal of the mission is to deliver a dozen science and technology payloads to the moon’s South Pole region, a part of the moon that remains unexplored and is the focus of NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions. The first crewed landing is currently set for 2026.

How to watch

Intuitive Machines is planning to live stream the landing on the IM-1 mission webpage on Thursday, February 22. You can also watch it on the player embedded at the top of this page. The touchdown is targeted for 5:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. PT). The live stream will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET (12:30 p.m. PT).

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Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
See images of the tilted Odysseus lander on the moon
Taken on February 27th, flight controllers commanded Odysseus to capture a new image using its narrow-field-of-view camera. Previous attempts to send photos from landing and the days following returned unusable imagery. After successfully transmitting the image to Earth, flight controllers received additional insight into Odysseus’ position on the lunar surface

The first lunar landing by a U.S. entity in 50 years was celebrated last week, but the lander from Intuitive Machines, named Odysseus, has had a challenging time as it landed at a tilted angle. New images released by the company show the damage that the Odysseus lander incurred during landing and sitting tilted on the moon's surface, but the company stressed that it considered the mission a success as it was able to perform a controlled soft landing and get science data from all of its payloads.

The lander is expected to run out of power within a few hours, but there is a possibility the company will be able to power it back on in a couple of weeks once the lunar night ends.

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Performing a controlled, soft landing on the moon isn’t easy. Three missions attempted to reach our nearest neighbor in recent weeks. Two of the landers -- one from Japan’s space agency and another from Texas-based Intuitive Machines -- touched down on the lunar surface but toppled over, creating challenges for their respective mission operators. A third moon-bound mission, from Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, suffered a propellant leak shortly after launch that prevented it from even attempting a landing.

The most recent visit, by Intuitive Machines, made history on February 22 when it became the first commercial company to achieve a soft lunar touchdown in a mission that was also the first U.S. lunar landing in more than 50 years.

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The U.S. company Intuitive Machines made a historic landing on the moon today. Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lander, launched earlier this month, touched down on the moon's surface at 6:23 p.m. ET, marking the U.S.'s first lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972 and the first landing on the moon by a commercial entity.

The Odysseus lander is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which provides contracts to companies for lunar services, and it carries a number of NASA scientific instruments. It has landed on the moon's south pole, which is an area of particular scientific interest as it hosts water ice and is the region where NASA plans to land astronauts under its Artemis program.

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