February 24, 2024
The lunar probe Ulysses tilted sideways on the lunar surface
The lunar rover named Odysseus is “alive and well” but resting on its side a day after its white-knuckle landing as the first private spacecraft ever to reach the lunar surface and the first from the US since 1972, the company behind the vehicle he said Friday. Houston-based Intuitive Machines ( LUNR.O ) revealed that human error led to the failure of the spacecraft’s laser rangefinders, how engineers spotted the error by chance hours before landing time and how they improvised an emergency fix that saved the mission from a possible crash. Although Odysseus reached the surface Thursday intact, data
