First collaborative mission between NASA, SpaceX, and Houston-based Intuitive Machines. SpaceX launched the intuitive moon lander ‘Nova-C’ on Wednesday, February 15, 2024, at 1:05 am.
First collaborative mission between NASA, SpaceX, and Houston-based Intuitive Machines. SpaceX launched the intuitive moon lander ‘Nova-C’ on Wednesday, February 15, 2024, at 1:05 am. The lander launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
About Nova-C Lunar Lander
The name of the Nova-C lander is ‘Odysseues’. It is a part of CLPS or NASA’s space agency Commercial Lunar Payload Services. The initiative was taken by NASA’s Artemis campaign. The machine is recapitulated in SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket. This time it was sent for a broader purpose than ever before. This lunar lander aims to send more heavy technical payloads to the lunar surface and to get more information about space weather, plume surface interaction or PSI, landing technologies, more precise navigation and communication capabilities, radio astronomy, and many more.
‘Odysseus’ named Nova-C lunar lander carried a total of 12 payloads including five payloads from NASA and the rest of the payloads from other commercial organizations. The SCALPSS or Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies will observe the interaction between the spacecraft engine and the lunar surface for soft landing. The lunar spacecraft is boosted by four 3D-printed engines which will liquefy oxygen and methane as fuels.
Lunar lander Nova-C is expected to land on the lunar surface by Thursday 22. It is a target to become the first private spacecraft to achieve a successful lunar landing. The spacecraft will target land in the southern polar region to look for water, icy substances, and other pivotal resources.
About Falcon-9 Rocket
The Falcon-9 Rocket is built by billionaire SpaceX owner, Elon Musk. The two-stage rocket has a total of 25 stories. After 48 minutes of launching, the lunar lander Nova-C departed its way to the moon from Falcon-9. The departed location was almost 139 miles above the Earth’s surface. A mission controller confirmed after hearing from the lunar lander that “IM-1 Odysseus lunar lander separation confirmed”.
In conclusion, our Chandrayaan-3 very soon is going to get a companion on a deserted lonely planet Moon, named Nova-C. This flight will be written on history because of its intuitive nature. It is the first-ever private spacecraft to land on the lunar surface and it will be also controlled and act on its specialty nature on its own.
During the 70’s NASA used to buy parts from private companies but owned and operated by them. So since the last U.S Apollo mission in 1972, it will be the first launched by a private company after 52 years. The lunar lander will follow the path of legend Neil Armstrong, the first human to step on the lunar surface. The first step of Armstrong on the moon made us alien entities towards the moon who came from a different planet. The mission through the first intuitive lunar lander Nova-C ‘IM-1’ is there once again to write history.
