US private craft achieves historic moon landing

The first American spaceship on the Moon since Apollo is "alive and well" following a drama-packed touchdown, the company that built it said Friday as it worked to download data and images from the uncrewed robot.

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Odysseus landed near the lunar south pole Thursday at 6:23 pm Eastern Time (2323 GMT), after a nail-biting final descent when ground teams had to switch to a backup guidance system and took several minutes to establish radio contact after the lander came to rest.

"Odysseus is alive and well," Intuitive Machines, which achieved the first lunar landing by a private company, posted on X on Friday morning.

"Flight controllers are communicating and commanding the vehicle to download science data." Engineers are working to learn the robot's precise coordinates in the Malapert A impact crater and its tilt, as the landing phase was carried out by the robot autonomously, using its instruments to navigate the Moon's terrain.