Odysseus lander tipped over on the moon: Here's why NASA says the mission was still a success

The Odysseus lunar lander came in hot and fast during a dramatic moon landing nearly a week ago, which appeared to send the spacecraft toppling onto its side.

The position of the craft seemed to obstruct some of its antennas from pointing toward Earth, while its solar panels were in far from an ideal position to generate energy from the overheard sun. Flight controllers feared the worst and raced against time to get as much data as they could before the energy-deprived Odysseus heaved its final gasp and went silent.

But concerns that the sideways landing spelled doom for the mission appear to have been for naught: As of Wednesday afternoon, Odysseus is still beaming back valuable intel and could have until roughly 8 p.m. EST to do so, Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, the company that built and operated the spacecraft, said at a news conference.

By gathering additional telemetry data from Odysseus, the team of flight controllers in Houston determined that the position in which the lander had fell wasn't quite so crippling. Instead of powering down by Wednesday morning as predicted, Odysseus is still alive and well.

In fact, Intuitive Machines hopes to wake Odysseus back up in about three weeks when the sun once again returns, offering some precious rays that may breathe life back into the lander.

"We've conducted a very successful mission to this point and we expect to go to the end of the mission as planned," Altemus said at the televised conference. "It's just an incredible testament to how robust and beastly that little spacecraft is."

Here's what officials at Intuitive Machines and NASA – the mission's primary customer – said Odysseus accomplished:

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Lander transmits data from scientific, commercial payloads

It was a mission of firsts for Odysseus, named for the hero of Homer's "The Odyssey:"

• First commercially-built lander to ever make it to the lunar surface;
• First American spacecraft to return to the moon since NASA's Apollo era ended in 1972;
• First private lander to transmit data back to Earth.

While NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to take its scientific payloads to the moon ahead of its own lunar missions, commercial customers like Columbia Sportwear also paid for a spot for cargo aboard the uncrewed craft.

Flight controllers have been able to successfully analyze data from all the commercial and scientific payloads aboard Odysseus. Additionally, data from the spacecraft's transit, descent, landing and time on the surface will also provide valuable intel to engineers to learn about what went well and what can be improved, Altemus said.

Intuitive Machines encountered 11 total "mission critical" challenges along the way – including temporary communication delays and issues with drifting during burn maneuvers. But all those hiccups were quickly corrected, said Tim Crain, chief technology officer and co-founder of Intuitive Machines.

Now, the company has a good understanding of the craft's liquid methane and liquid oxygen propulsion system in deep space, which is now flight-proven.

Odysseus may be woken up in 3 weeks

Odysseus beat the odds Thursday, accomplishing what its Pittsburgh-based competitor Astrobotic Technology could not when it landed on the moon about a week after it launched aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

After separating from the SpaceX rocket, it took the lander 48 minutes to reach its orbit before it established communication with ground control. The next day, it aced a crucial engine firing test and succeeded in orienting itself in the direction of the moon as it powered ahead.

Disaster struck, though, when telemetry data seemed to indicate that the spacecraft failed to land on its six legs and instead came down on its side  near Malapert A, a small crater about 190 miles from the moon's south pole region where water ice is thought to be abundant.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter later confirmed the precise location of Odysseus' landing site, which serves as the southernmost location where any craft has ever landed on the moon, Intuitive Machines said.

A photo taken Tuesday and successfully sent to Earth showed Odysseus' position on the lunar surface, Intuitive Machines said in a Wednesday mission update.

Altemus said the team now believes Odysseus hit the lunar surface hard upon landing, sending it into a skid as the engines continued to fire. When they throttled down, Odysseus slowly tipped over at a 30 degree angle on what flight controllers now believe is a gentle slope.

It continues to generate solar power, but Altemus said Wednesday that the company will soon put Odysseus to sleep to conserve energy until the sun returns in two to three weeks. That's when Intuitive Machines will put to the test another question: Can the team once again establish a signal with Odysseus when the sun is once again illuminating the craft's solar panels?

IM-1 mission lays groundwork for future trips to moon

For NASA, the mission has successfully laid the groundwork for the U.S. space agency to work with more commercial entities on future space endeavors.

Intuitive Machines' IM-1 mission was part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS. The space agency paid the company a whopping $118 million to take its scientific payloads to the moon, which they said yielded the valuable insights for which they hoped.

The U.S. space agency has a budget of $2.6 billion in contracts available through 2028 to pay private companies like Intuitive Machines to transport scientific payloads on private robotic landers bound for the lunar surface. The excursions will pave the way for NASA's own Artemis moon missions, which will ultimately see the U.S. attempt to send astronauts back to the moon to establish a base of operations ahead of trips to Mars.

"It's an exciting time to be on day six of this new era in the 21st century," said  Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration at NASA.

Kearns described the missions as a "pathfinder" that succeeded in helping scientists understand Intuitive Machines' 14-foot-tall, six-legged Nova-C lander ahead of more missions to the moon, including the company's IM-2 slated for later this year.

"We've fundamentally changed the economics of landing on the moon," Altemus said. "It's really a point in history that we should celebrate."

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com