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Today is a historic day for space fans everywhere! Americans last set foot on the moon 52 years ago with Apollo 17. The long-awaited return, albeit unmanned for now, will take place this Thursday evening at 23:49 Swiss time.
After numerous failed attempts by various companies, US company Intuitive Machines wants to attempt the first commercial moon landing in space history. If all goes well, the Nova-C lander should slowly touch down in the southern region of the Earth satellite visible from Earth at 11:49 p.m.
Artemis Missions: Return to the Moon
The possibly historic journey of “Nova-C” began a week ago at the Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida, USA. The “Falcon 9” rocket of Elon Musk’s (52) space company SpaceX set out for the moon. The lander includes various scientific instruments belonging to the US space agency NASA.
Americans’ goal: to return to the moon with humans! The missions, called Artemis, will be prepared with “Nova-C”. If all goes well, US astronauts are expected to land on the Moon again in 2026 as part of the planned “Artemis III” mission.
Fail over and over again
Moon landings are considered to be extremely technically demanding and often go wrong. Two planned landings this year alone turned out differently than expected: Astrobotic, a US company headquartered in Pittsburgh, sent the “Peregrine” capsule in January. However, shortly after takeoff, problems occurred due to a malfunction in the propulsion system. Engineers managed to temporarily stabilize the capsule, but the goal of landing on the moon had to be abandoned. A few days later, “Peregrine” burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Shortly thereafter, the “SLIM” (Smart Lander for Lunar Exploration) lander of the Japanese space agency Jaxa slowly touched down on the moon, but initially experienced problems with energy supply. “SLIM” became operational only after a power outage that lasted for days. This makes Japan the fifth country to successfully land an unmanned moon on the moon, after the United States, Russia, China and India. Last April, a Japanese company with a similar mission failed.
Source :Blick
I’m Tim David and I work as an author for 24 Instant News, covering the Market section. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, my mission is to provide accurate, timely and insightful news coverage that helps our readers stay informed about the latest trends in the market. My writing style is focused on making complex economic topics easy to understand for everyone.
