Private companies to attempt first US moon landings since Apollo missions half a century ago
- Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines are vying for bragging rights as first private entity to land on moon. US has not attempted moon landing since 1972
- It is part of a Nasa-supported effort to kick-start commercial moon deliveries, as the space agency focuses on getting astronauts back there
China and India scored moon landings, while Russia, Japan and Israel ended up in the lunar rubbish heap.
Now two private companies are hustling to get the US back in the game, more than five decades after the Apollo programme ended.
It is part of a Nasa-supported effort to kick-start commercial moon deliveries, as the space agency focuses on getting astronauts back there.
“They’re scouts going to the moon ahead of us,” said Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson.
Pittsburgh’s Astrobotic Technology is up first with a planned lift-off of a lander on Monday aboard a brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan. Houston’s Intuitive Machines aims to launch a lander in mid-February, hopping a flight with SpaceX.
Then there is Japan, which will attempt to land in two weeks. The Japanese Space Agency’s lander with two toy-size rovers had a big head start, sharing a September launch with an X-ray telescope that stayed behind in orbit around Earth.
