A private mission that wants to land on the moon has sent in impressive photos.

Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission is going according to plan, and its promoters are crossing their fingers. Path of the Moon The Odyssey lander sent back impressive photographs of the Earth.

This is private company Intuitive Machines’ first lunar mission, but it’s looking to break some records. It has already surpassed one: it is the first ship that turned on in space the engine runs on liquid methane and oxygen. This step was key, since this is the engine that will allow Moon landing, if all goes well, February 22.

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For NASA, this mission is vital because it launched CLPS Initiativewith the goal of supporting private missions to the Moon in exchange for transporting experiments for NASA.

The first mission ended poorly after Astrobotic’s Peregrine module suffered an engine failure, causing it to deviate from its route. A second failure would be catastrophic..

The first private mission that could land on the Moon

The IM-1 mission launched on February 14. on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Everything went perfectly: the Odysseus Nova C module separated from the rocket after leaving Earth orbit, and I was able to send some good photographs of the Earth:

The module is currently approximately 270,000 kilometers from Earth, on its way to the Moon.

They have already successfully fired the engines with fuel that is being used for the first time in space: liquid methane and oxygen. This engine is needed to guide the spacecraft towards the Moon and to brake before landing..

Twelve experiments are being conducted inside the Odyssey from different universities and companies, six of them by NASA. In addition, for the first time, the landing will be recorded by 3D cameras.

If everything goes the way it is now, The Odyssey module of the Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission will land on the Moon on February 22. This would be the first private mission to achieve this since the failure of Sapsan, and a private Japanese mission. Good luck!