Launch of private US moon lander postponed by technical glitch in Florida (updated)

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14/02/2024 05:14

(Recasting with launch postponed for at least 24 hours)
    By Joe Skipper and Steve Gorman
       CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, Feb 13 (Reuters) - The planned
launch of a robotic moon lander built by Houston-based aerospace
company Intuitive Machines was called off less than two hours
before Wednesday's liftoff time and postponed for at least a
day, launch contractor SpaceX said on Tuesday night.
        SpaceX, the private rocket and satellite company founded
by billionaire Elon Musk, said on the social media platform X
that the launch team was "standing down from tonight's attempt"
because of irregular methane temperatures before loading.
  
        The precise function of the methane and its implications
for the proper function of the Falcon 9 rocket were not
immediately explained. The rocket's Merlin engines run on
kerosene and liquid oxygen.
  
        The decision to scrub the Intuitive Machines flight,
which had been set for liftoff at 12:57 a.m. EST on Wednesday
from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida,
came about 75 minutes before launch time. 
  
        SpaceX said it would aim for the next launch opportunity
for the uncrewed mission, which is slated for 1:05 a.m. EST on
Thursday.
  
    Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander, dubbed Odysseus, remains
poised atop the Falcon 9 rocket for a mission aimed at
conducting the first U.S. lunar touchdown since the last Apollo
moon mission a half century ago, and the first by a privately
owned vehicle.
        The feat also would mark the first journey to the lunar
surface under NASA's Artemis moon program, as the United States
races to return astronauts to Earth's natural satellite before
China lands its own crewed spacecraft there.
  
    The launch comes a month after the lunar lander of another
private firm, Astrobotic Technology, suffered a propulsion
system leak on its way to the moon shortly after being placed in
orbit on Jan. 8 by a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket
making its debut flight. 
    The failure of Astrobotic's Peregrine lander, which was also
on a NASA mission, marked the third time a private company had
been unable to achieve a "soft landing" on the lunar surface,
following ill-fated efforts by companies from Israel and Japan.
    Those mishaps illustrate the risks NASA faces in leaning
more heavily on the commercial sector than it had in the past to
realize its spaceflight goals.
    The latest IM-1 flight is considered a Intuitive Machines
mission, thought is carrying six NASA payloads of instruments
designed to gather data about the lunar environment ahead of a
NASA Artemis mission to return astronauts to the moon for the
first time since 1972.
    If the four-legged Odysseus lander gets off the ground this
week, plans call for it to reach its destination on Feb. 22 for
a landing at crater Malapert A near the moon's south pole.

 (Reporting by Joe Skipper in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Steve
Gorman in Los Angeles. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
 ((steve.gorman@thomsonreuters.com; 310-491-7256; Reuters
Messaging: steve.gorman.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))