The Odyssey lunar mission will end on Tuesday morning

Feb 26 (Reuters) – Communications with the privately owned U.S. lander Odyssey will cease on Tuesday, ending its mission five days after landing, Intuitive Machines, the company responsible for the craft, said on Monday.

On Friday, the day after Odyssey arrived in the moon’s south polar region, Intuitive Machines told reporters that the science payload aboard the lander could operate on the moon for about nine or 10 days.

However, the company then admitted that the spacecraft landed sideways on the lunar surface after a navigation failure, limiting the ship’s solar panels’ exposure to available sunlight.

In a mission status update released Monday, the Houston-based company said, “Flight controllers intend to collect data until the lander’s solar panels are no longer exposed to light.”

“Based on the position of the Earth and the Moon, we believe that flight controllers will continue to communicate with Odysseus until Tuesday morning,” he added.

(Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Joey Roulette in Washington. Spanish edition by Sofia Diaz Pineda)