At 00:39 on Friday night, Intuitive Machines announced in their livestream from the landing that their probe has completed the journey, landed on the moon and is sending a weak signal.
The fact that it is now increasingly private companies that carry out the space missions is a conscious strategy for the United States.
Still risky
A month ago, a Japanese probe landed on the moon, and the country thus became the fifth in the world to have managed to land a craft on the moon, after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.
However, it is still a risky business. The United States’ latest attempt to reach the moon, the Peregrine probe from operator Astrobotic, ran into problems after launch just over a month ago. Astrobotic was forced to let it crash into the Pacific Ocean.
So far, all ongoing expeditions are unmanned. The last time humans were on the moon was the Apollo 17 expedition in late 1972, over 50 years ago. But if current projects go well, both the US and China plan to send astronauts to the moon later this decade.