MOREHEAD, Ky. (LEX 18) — History was made Thursday night in outer space. A private craft touched down on the moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to reach the lunar surface in more than half a century.
A group at Morehead State University took a special interest in this out-of-this-world event.
"The way I see it is it is the start of sustained presence on the moon," said jet propulsion lab telecommunications engineer Marc Sanchez.
All eyes were on the screens at the watch party in Morehead as the Odysseus Lunar Lander honed in on its target.
"Only five organizations have landed on the surface of the moon and they've all been governments. This is the first time a company will have landed, but it's also the first time in 52 years that government technology has gone to the surface of the moon, so it's historic and nostalgic in that respect," said Dr. Ben Malphrus, executive director of the Space Science Center at Morehead State.
The Space Science Center is one of the primary ground stations for this mission as part of the Intuitive Machines Lunar Data Network.
"Students are involved intimately in pulling the data, commanding the craft, and getting the images so it's great training for student operators," said Dr. Malphrus. "They are in there on consoles and have been working and training for this mission. For our role, we are working on tracking, telemetry, and command surfaces."
The event isn't the culmination of a project but rather the beginning.
"This mission takes 12 experiments – six NASA and six commercial and they are all trying to see what it takes to live and work on the surface of the moon."
The craft is unmanned, so its condition after landing is still unknown at this point. Work will soon begin to assess the lunar weather environment of the moon's south pole. NASA plans to return a crewed mission to the moon in late 2026.
