[ad_1]
SpaceX on Wednesday announced that it is postponing the launch of a moon lander built by private space technology firm Intuitive Machines due to an issue with the temperature of liquid methane fuel.
The Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission was set to launch Wednesday but is now set to take off at 11.35 AM IST on Thursday, February 15. It will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
IM-1 is the company’s first attempt at a lunar landing and is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services. If it manages to soft-land on the lunar surface, it will be the first successful privately-led moon landing mission in history. Israel’s Beresheet, Japan’s Hakuto and the American Peregrine landers all failed to do that in 2019, 2023 and 2024.
The IM-1 mission carries Odysseus, the company’s Nova-C class lunar lander that will separate from the Falcon 9 rocket after launch to get on a trajectory to the Moon. The lander’s propulsion system is powered by a mixture of liquid methane and liquid oxygen. SpaceX found issues with the temperature of the liquid methane while it was being loaded on the spacecraft, said NASA in a statement.
Intuitive Machines and its customers expect to operate the lander’s payloads for around seven days before it becomes lunar night near the landing site, at which point Odysseus will be inoperable. This also means that there is a short launch window for the mission
After touchdown, Intuitive Machines and its customers expect to operate payloads on the lunar surface for roughly seven days before the lunar night sets on the south pole of the Moon, rendering Odysseus inoperable.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 14-02-2024 at 12:30 IST
[ad_2]
Source link
