'Odysseus' postpones mission to become first private lander on the moon
A Houston-based company's planned launch of a spacecraft to the moon in a bid to become the first to land a commercially built probe on the lunar surface has been postponed.
A Houston-based company's planned launch of a spacecraft to the moon in a bid to become the first to land a commercially built probe on the lunar surface has been postponed.
Intuitive Machines’ spacecraft, nicknamed Odysseus, was scheduled to lift off Wednesday at 12:57 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida. However, the launch was postponed due to "off-nominal methane temperatures prior to stepping into methane load," NASA announced shortly before launch time.
A new launch date is being targeted for Thursday at 1:05 a.m. ET.
The lander will hitch a ride into orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Odysseus was originally set to spend the next eight days in space before it touched down on the moon on Feb. 22. The event would be the first landing on the moon for the U.S. in more than 50 years.
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