CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Landing a spacecraft on the moon has long been a series of hits and misses.
Landing a spacecraft on the moon has long been a series of hits and misses.
Now, a U.S. company has become the first private outfit to achieve a safe moon landing. Only five countries have done it.
A lander built by Intuitive Machines through a NASA-sponsored program touched down on the moon Thursday.
The achievement puts the U.S. back in business on the moon for the first time since NASA astronauts closed out the Apollo program in 1972.
The moon is littered with wreckage from failed landings over the years. Another U.S. company — Astrobotic Technology — tried to send a lander to the moon last month, but had to give up because of a fuel leak. The crippled lander came crashing back through the atmosphere, burning up over the Pacific.
Both U.S. businesses are part of NASA’s effort to support commercial deliveries to the moon.
A rundown on the moon’s winners and losers:
FIRST VICTORIES
The Soviet Union’s Luna 9 successfully touches down on the moon in 1966, after its predecessors crash or miss the moon altogether. The U.S. follows four months later with Surveyor 1. Both countries achieve more robotic landings, as the race heats up to land men.
