New US moon landing mission launched on Valentine’s Day Ukraine is now hunting Wagner mercenaries in Sudan

About a month after the failure of a private moon landing mission, another attempt is planned for next week – on Valentine’s Day. As the American space agency NASA announced on Wednesday, the unmanned lunar lander Nova-C from the American company Intuitive Machines will be launched into space on February 14 from the Kennedy Space Center in the state of Florida. A Falcon 9 rocket from space company SpaceX is planned for the flight.

Nova-C is expected to land on Earth’s satellite on February 22. If successful, it would be the US’s first moon landing in more than 50 years.

In January, an attempt to return the Peregrine lunar lander from the American company Astrobotic to the moon failed. Peregrine was launched into space on January 8 on a rocket from the United Launch Alliance space joint venture. However, after separation from the rocket, an explosion occurred and the lunar module began to leak fuel. Peregrine Falcon eventually burned up in Earth’s atmosphere in mid-January.

Soft moon landing is a challenge

A soft moon landing is a major challenge. So far, only the US, the Soviet Union, China, India and most recently Japan have managed to land on the moon. A private company has never succeeded in such an undertaking.

As part of a broad strategy, NASA wants to encourage the private sector to undertake missions to the moon. The space agency paid Houston, Texas-based Intuitive Machines more than $100 million for the mission. NASA wants to return astronauts to the moon with its Artemis program in the coming years.

The US achieved the first manned moon landing in 1969 with the Apollo 11 mission. The last human landing on the moon to date took place in 1972 with the American mission Apollo 17. (sda/afp)