SpaceX is sending an unmanned lander into space

SpaceX, Elon Musk's space company, sent an unmanned lander into space on Thursday. The Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Odysseus lunar lander, took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida just after 7 a.m. Netherlands time. SpaceX said. The vehicle was scheduled to be launched on Wednesday, but was postponed due to problems with the vehicle's fuel system.

The trip to the moon will take about a week. The Odysseus rover, a Nova-C from Intuitive Machines, is scheduled to land in a crater near the moon's south pole around February 22. There you will conduct research in that hole, where future astronauts could also be sent. The spacecraft will collect data on, among other things, space weather and precise landing techniques.

If the operation is successful, it will be the first time that an American mission has been able to land softly on the moon since NASA's Apollo space program (1961-1972), and it will be the first time that a commercial company has achieved this. . Go together. The last American landing on the moon was in 1972, with the Apollo 17 spacecraft. Three previous attempts at a soft landing by a commercial company were unsuccessful.

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