Lunar lander Odysseus can’t phone home

An uncrewed American lander that became the first private spaceship on the moon has met its end after failing to ‘wake up’.

A model of Odysseus sits on its side to show ihow the moon lander face-planted into the dirt after catching on a rock during its dramatic landing.

An uncrewed American lander that became the first private spaceship on the moon has met its ultimate end after failing to “wake up”.

Its maker, Intuitive Machines, said the lander, named Odysseus, had not phoned home last week when its solar panels were projected to receive enough sunlight to turn on its radio.

The lander touched down at a wonky angle on February 22, but was still able to complete several tests and send back photos before its mission was determined to have ended a week later, as it ­entered a weeks-long lunar night.

Intuitive Machines had hoped it might “wake up” once it ­received sunlight again, as Japan’s SLIM spaceship – which landed upside down in January – did last month.

The company said that after several days of waiting, operators had confirmed the power system of the lander, nicknamed “Odie”, would “not complete another call home”. “This confirms that Odie has permanently faded after ­cementing its legacy into history as the first commercial lunar lander to land on the moon,” it said.

The mission has been hailed as a success by Intuitive Machines and NASA, even as it ran into multiple problems along the way.

It was the first lunar touchdown by an American spaceship since the manned Apollo 17 mission in 1972. NASA is planning to return astronauts to the moon later this decade. It paid Intuitive Machines around $120m for the mission as part of an initiative to delegate cargo missions to the private sector and stimulate a lunar economy.

Odysseus carried a suite of NASA instruments designed to improve scientific understanding of the lunar south pole, where the space agency plans to send astronauts under its Artemis program later this decade.

Intuitive Machines has two more moon missions planned this year, both part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which works with the private sector.

AFP