So far, the lunar surface landing mission has been successfully carried out by the national space agencies of the United States, Russia, India and Japan. Yesterday Intuitive Machines became the first private company to do the same with their Nova-C Odysseus spacecraft. It also became the second time a spacecraft successfully landed on the south pole of the moon after India did it last year.
Odysseus carried several NASA science instruments under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program to collect information for the Artemis Mission. In addition it also carries all the cameras as well as 125 mini sculptures produced by the artist Jeff Koons. It will conduct a 14-day data collection mission before a cold lunar night will cause damage to the system.
Before Intuitive Machines, Japan's ispace Inc.'s attempt to become the first private company to land on the moon through the Hakuto-R Mission 1 failed after it crashed.