SpaceX rocket launches to the moon's south pole, which could support human missions in 2026

SPACEX has successfully launched the Odysseus lunar lander, which could mark the beginning of the first U.S. moon landing in 50 years.

The Nova-C Odysseus will now embark on a week-long journey to the moon's surface.

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The lander, built by Texas-based Intuitive Machines, aims to be the first private lunar lander to land on the moon.

The launch was initially scheduled for Valentine's Day (February 14), but was postponed due to a problem with fuel temperatures.

The 675 kg (1,488 pound) spacecraft launched at 6:05 a.m. GMT (1:05 ​​a.m. ET) aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Twelve payloads are on board the lander, including a next-gen system with four cameras to record the journey to the surface and landing sensors built in Britain by a company called MDA.

If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will attempt a moon landing on February 22.

Once it reaches the surface, Odysseus will operate for only two weeks, or one lunar night.

“It's a deeply humbling moment for all of us at Intuitive Machines,” Trent Martin, the company's vice president of space systems, said Tuesday during a press conference ahead of the launch.

“The opportunity to return the United States to the moon for the first time since 1972 requires a hunger to explore, and that is at the core of everyone at Intuitive Machines.”

It comes just weeks after the US lunar lander Peregrine failed to reach the surface due to a fuel leak.

Peregrine Falcon disintegrated upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere just ten days after launch.

Mysterious South Pole

Intuitive Machines is targeting a crater near the south pole, known as Malapert A, as its landing site.

NASA's Artemis III mission – the first human mission on the moon since Apollo 17 – will also explore the region near the moon's south pole.

This latest move to the moon is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which aims to engage commercial companies in the exploration of the lunar surface.

This allows NASA to instead channel its efforts (and money) toward getting astronauts back on the moon.

It's part of a decade-long program that hopes to culminate in a permanent moon base, which NASA hopes to build by the end of this decade.

As part of this mission, the space agency has tapped private industry to engage the sector with rocket launches and lunar landers.

The Indian state mission to the moon's south pole was the first to land successfully.

Scientists believe the South Pole is the most promising location for water-based ice, which they say is key to future human habitation on the moon.

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