Day: February 22, 2024

The U.S. may be about to land its first commercial mission on the surface of the moon. On Thursday, the robotic probe known as Odysseus is scheduled to set down near the lunar south pole.

But there's still a lot that could go wrong.

The spacecraft was built by the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines. It took off from Florida last week aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The IM-1 mission is one of several that NASA has purchased from private companies as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.