Odysseus is not dead yet. But soon it will be time to say, “Good night, lunar lander.”

Last week, Odysseus, a privately built robotic lunar lander, became the first American spacecraft in more than 50 years to land on the moon, and the first nongovernmental attempt ever to accomplish that feat.

But like the Homeric Greek hero it is named after, the lander has not had an easy journey with a beautiful and happy ending.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based company that built Odysseus, said the spacecraft continued to function but was scheduled to be shut down later on Wednesday.

“We executed a very successful mission,” said Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines.

The extension of the spacecraft’s life was the latest twist in the mission’s timeline, after the company suggested earlier this week that the lander’s operations could end on Tuesday and then said that day that the vehicle might no less than 20 hours of the remaining battery life.

Uncertainty about Odysseus’ condition has persisted since Thursday, when the rover reached the moon. That evening, after landing time had expired, Intuitive Machines flight controllers waited for several anxious minutes for a radio signal confirming the lander’s safe arrival at its destination in the moon’s south polar region. When the signal was detected, it was weak, indicating that the spacecraft’s main antennas were pointed away from Earth.

The next day, Intuitive Machines officials announced that Odysseus had fallen over after hitting the ground harder than planned. Instead of making a perfectly vertical landing, Odysseus was still moving sideways when he landed.

Engineers worked hard over the weekend to speed up communications with Odysseus and extract data from the spacecraft. The mission was originally expected to last nine to 10 days until the sun set on the solar-powered spacecraft. Instead, it appears that Odysseus will survive on the moon for about six days.

Odysseus might wake up again in a few weeks. Although it is not designed to survive the frigid moon night, the electronics can still come to life the next time the sun shines on the solar panels. A Japanese lunar lander, also solar powered, came back to life over the weekend after it had endured the lunar night.

This is a developing story that will be updated as more information is announced.

One day after the historic landing, the first private spacecraft on the moon is in good condition but has fallen over, the company that built it said Friday.

The spacecraft, named Odysseus, landed in the moon’s south polar region on Thursday evening, becoming the first American vehicle to soft-land on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Initially, Intuitive Machines, which built Odysseus, said the craft had landed upright, but subsequent analysis of the data showed it had come to rest at an angle. That means the spacecraft’s antennas are not pointed at Earth, limiting the amount of data that can be sent back and forth.

Odysseus has not been able to send back any photos since landing. Intuitive engineers are still trying to extract more information from the spacecraft.

“The vehicle is stable near or at the intended landing site,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said Friday during a NASA news conference. “We do have communication with the lander.”

He added: “That’s phenomenal for starters.”

But he and Tim Crain, the chief technology officer, also described unforeseen problems that nearly doomed the mission. The landing was saved by serendipity and hectic work, they said.

This development story will be updated.

A spacecraft headed for the moon's surface instead landed back on Earth and burned up in the planet's atmosphere Thursday afternoon.

Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology announced in a message on the social network X that it lost communication with its Peregrine Falcon lunar lander at 3:50 PM eastern time, indicating that it entered Earth's atmosphere over the South Pacific around 4:04 PM.

“We are awaiting independent confirmation from government authorities,” the company said.

It was an intentional, if disappointing, end to a journey that lasted ten days and covered more than half a million miles, with the spacecraft traveling along the moon's orbit before returning to Earth. But the spacecraft never got close to its landing destination on the near side of the moon.

The main payloads on the spacecraft came from NASA, part of an effort to conduct experiments on the moon at a lower cost by using commercial companies. Astrobotic's launch was the first in the program, known as Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS. NASA paid Astrobotic $108 million to transport five experiments.

Peregrine launched flawlessly from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 8, on the debut flight of a brand new rocket known as Vulcan. But shortly after it separated from the rocket's second stage, the propulsion system suffered a major failure and the spacecraft was unable to keep its solar panels pointed at the sun.

Astrobotic engineers managed to reorient Peregrine so that the battery could be charged. But propellant leakage made the planned moon landing impossible. The company's current hypothesis is that a valve failed to close, causing a high-pressure stream of helium to rupture a fuel tank.

Astrobotic initially estimated that Peregrine would run out of propellant and die within a few days. But as the leak subsided, the spacecraft continued to operate. All ten powered payloads, including four from NASA, were successfully powered up, demonstrating that the spacecraft's power systems were working. (The fifth NASA payload, a laser reflector, did not require power.) Other customer payloads, including a small rover built by students at Carnegie Mellon University and experiments for the German and Mexican space agencies, were also powered up.

Over the weekend, the company said the spacecraft, blown off course by the propellant leak, was on its way to burning up in Earth's atmosphere. The company said it decided to leave Peregrine on that trajectory to avoid the possibility of the crippled spacecraft colliding with satellites around Earth.

More landers are aiming for the moon.

On Friday, a Japanese robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the moon, SLIM, will attempt a moon landing. The touchdown will take place around 10:20 a.m. Eastern Time. (It will be early Saturday morning, 12:20, in Japan.)

The next NASA-funded commercial mission, by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, could launch as early as mid-February.

A brand new rocket lifted off early Monday morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida, sending a robotic spacecraft to the moon’s surface. No American spacecraft has soft-landed on the moon since 1972.

For United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, the successful launch of the Vulcan Centaur rocket was crucial. Vulcan is designed to replace two older rockets, and the United States Space Force also relies on it to launch spy satellites and other spacecraft important to U.S. national security.

The Vulcan is also the first of several new rockets that could challenge the current dominance of the space launch market by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. SpaceX sent nearly 100 rockets into space last year. Other first orbital launches in the coming months include the Ariane 6 rocket from Arianespace, a European company, and New Glenn from Blue Origin, the company founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Throughout the night the countdown to the Vulcan rocket went smoothly and the weather cooperated.

At 2:18 a.m. Eastern Time, the rocket’s engines ignited and took off from the launch pad, heading east over the Atlantic Ocean.

“Everything looks good,” Rob Gannon, the launch commentator for United Launch Alliance, said repeatedly as the Vulcan lifted off into space.

“Yee-haw,” said company CEO Tory Bruno after the lunar spacecraft deployed. “I’m so excited. How much I can’t tell you.”

United Launch Alliance was founded in 2006 and for seven years was the only company certified by the U.S. government to send national security payloads into space. So far it has used two vehicles: the Delta IV, developed by Boeing, which will complete its final flight later this year, and the Atlas V, developed by Lockheed Martin, which will also be retired in a few years.

There are still seventeen Atlas V launches left, but the rocket uses Russian-built engines, which became politically untenable with the rise of tensions between Russia and the United States. That prompted ULA to begin development of the Vulcan, which replaces the capabilities of both rockets at a lower cost, United Launch Alliance officials said.

“What’s unique about Vulcan, and what we originally set out to do, was to deliver a rocket that has all the capabilities of Atlas and Delta in a single system,” said Mark Peller, the ULA vice president in charge is for the development of Vulcan. “Because we do have that adaptability, the configuration can really be tailored to the specific mission.”

Vulcan can be configured in several ways. The core booster stage, the main body of the rocket, is powered by two BE-4 engines manufactured by Blue Origin. The engines, which emit deep blue flames from burning methane fuel, will also be used on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.

Up to six solid rocket fuel boosters can be attached to the side of the core to increase the amount of mass it can deliver into orbit. The nose cone has two sizes: a standard size of 15 meters long, and a longer one, 22 meters, for larger payloads.

“The launch market is more robust than it has been in decades,” said Carissa Christensen, the CEO of Bryce Tech, a consulting firm in Alexandria, Virginia. “And expected demand will likely be sufficient to support multiple launch providers, including Vulcaan.”

ULA already has a backlog of more than 70 missions to fly on Vulcan. Amazon purchased 38 launches for deployment to Project Kuiper, a constellation of communications satellites that will compete with SpaceX’s Starlink network to provide high-speed satellite internet.

Many of the other launches will be for the Space Force. ULA and SpaceX are currently the only companies approved to launch national security missions. Monday’s launch is the first of two demonstration missions the Space Force needs to build confidence in Vulcan before using the launch vehicle for military and surveillance payloads.

The second launch is to lift Dream Chaser, an unmanned spaceplane built by Sierra Space of Louisville, Colorado, for a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. That could then be followed by four additional Vulcan launches this year for the Space Force.

The main payload for Vulcan’s first launch was Peregrine, a spacecraft built by Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh. Founded in 2007, Astrobotic is one of several private companies looking to offer a delivery service to the moon’s surface. The main customer for this trip is NASA, which paid Astrobotic $108 million to conduct five experiments. This is part of the scientific work that the space agency is carrying out in preparation for the astronauts’ return to the moon under the Artemis program.

Unlike in the past, when NASA built and operated its own spacecraft, this time it is relying on companies like Astrobotic to provide transportation.

A second burn of the Vulcan’s second stage engine, lasting about four minutes, sent Peregrine on its way to the moon. “It’s a dream,” Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said on the NASA Television broadcast after the launch. “We are on our way to the moon.”

About 50 minutes after launch, the Astrobotic spacecraft separated from the rocket.

After a two-and-a-half week journey to the moon, the Peregrine lander will enter orbit around the moon and circle there until February 23, when it will attempt a landing in Sinus Viscositatis – Latin for ‘Bay of Stickiness’ – a enigmatic region on the near side of the moon.

Vulcan also picked up a secondary payload for Celestis, a company that memorializes people by sending some of their ashes, or DNA, into space. Two toolbox-sized containers attached to the small cylindrical capsules of the Vulcan’s upper stage.

Among the people whose remains are on this final journey are Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek; his wife, Majel Barrett, who played Nurse Chapel on the original television show; and three other actors on the show: DeForest Kelley, who played medical officer Leonard “Bones” McCoy; Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura, the communications officer; and James Doohan, who played Montgomery Scott, the chief engineer.

One of the capsules contains hair samples from three American presidents: George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.

A final brief engine start sent the second stage and the Celestis monument into orbit around the sun.

Celestis, as well as another company providing similar services, San Francisco-based Elysium Space, also has a payload on Peregrine. That has sparked an outcry from leaders of the Navajo Nation, who say many Native Americans consider the moon a sacred place and consider sending human remains there a desecration. Navajo officials asked the White House to delay the launch to discuss the matter.

Charles Chafer, the CEO of Celestis, said he respected the religious beliefs of all people, but that “I don’t think you can regulate space missions based on religious reasons.”

During news conferences, NASA officials noted that they were not in charge of the mission and had no direct control over other payloads Astrobotic sold on Peregrine. “An intergovernmental meeting is being convened with the Navajo Nation that NASA will support,” Joel Kearns, deputy assistant administrator for research at NASA, said during a press conference on Thursday.

John Thornton, Astrobotic’s CEO, said Friday he was disappointed that “this conversation came up so late in the game” because his company had announced the participation of Celestis and Elysium years ago.

“We’re really trying to do the right thing,” Mr. Thornton said. “I hope we can find a good path forward with the Navajo Nation.”

NASA announced the program to tap private industry for lunar deliveries – called Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS for short – in 2018. But it was slow to get off the ground. After repeated delays, Astrobotic’s Peregrine flight is the first CLPS mission to reach space, and it will be the first to arrive in lunar orbit. But it may not be the first to land.

A second CLPS mission, by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, is expected to launch as early as mid-February and will follow a faster path to the moon, meaning it could reach the surface before Peregrine.

While Vulcan still has many payloads to launch in the coming years, its longer-term prospects are less clear. Other aerospace companies are looking to take over some of the Space Force business, and Amazon could shift many more of its Kuiper launches to Bezos’ Blue Origin in the future.

Another factor affecting Vulcan’s future is SpaceX landing and reusing its Falcon 9 boosters, which will likely give it a significant price advantage over ULA. In contrast, the entire Vulcan missile is used only once. Blue Origin also plans to reuse the New Glenn boosters.

ULA is developing technology that could be used to repair the two engines in the booster, the most expensive part of the rocket, but that will take years.

A brand new American rocket sits on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and for the first time in more than 50 years, an American spacecraft will be heading to the moon’s surface. The rocket is called Vulcan and was built by the company United Launch Alliance. Here’s what you need to know about the first flight.

When is the launch and how can I watch it?

The launch is scheduled for Monday at 2:18 a.m. Eastern. The coverage will be broadcast on NASA Television from 1:30 am

Forecasts indicate an 85 percent chance of favorable weather. If the launch is postponed until Tuesday, weather conditions will deteriorate, with only a 30 percent chance of favorable conditions.

There are additional launch opportunities on January 10 and 11.

What is the moon mission going to orbit?

Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology sends Peregrine, a robotic spacecraft, to land in Sinus Viscositatis – Latin for ‘Bay of Stickiness’ – a mysterious region on the near side of the moon. NASA will pay Astrobotic $108 million to conduct five experiments there, part of the space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS. The program aims to reduce the cost of shipping items to the lunar surface.

What is the Vulcan Missile and why is it important?

The Vulcan rocket, built by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, will replace the company’s two current rockets, the Altas V and the Delta IV.

Since its founding in 2006, the United Launch Alliance’s main business has been launching top-secret military payloads for the U.S. government. The rockets were expensive – too expensive for most commercial customers – but very reliable. With Vulcan, ULA aims for a larger share of the commercial market. It has already sold more than 70 Vulcan launches, including 38 to Amazon to build Project Kuiper, a constellation of Internet communications satellites.

The United States Space Force would like to see two successful Vulcan launches before bringing a single payload on board. Monday’s launch is the first certification launch. A second one could take place as early as April. That would take Dream Chaser, an unmanned spaceplane built by Sierra Space of Louisville, Colorado, on a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station.

If these flights are successful, four additional Vulcan launches would deliver Space Force payloads to orbit this year.

Why is the rocket’s payload causing controversy?

The Navajo Nation objects to human ash and DNA aboard Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander.

In addition to the five NASA experiments, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander also carries several payloads for commercial customers. This includes Celestis and Elysium Space, companies that commemorate people by sending part of their remains into space.

On Thursday, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said in a statement that he had sent a letter to NASA and the U.S. Department of Transportation calling for the launch to be postponed.

“The moon is deeply rooted in the spirituality and heritage of many indigenous cultures, including our own,” he wrote. “The placement of human remains on the moon is a profound description of this celestial body revered by our people.”

During news conferences, NASA officials noted that they were not in charge of the mission and that they had no direct control over other payloads Astrobotic sold on Peregrine.

“An intergovernmental meeting is being convened with the Navajo Nation that NASA will support,” Joel Kearns, deputy assistant administrator for research at NASA, said during a press conference on Thursday.

John Thornton, Astrobotic’s CEO, said Friday he was disappointed that “this conversation came up so late in the game” because his company had announced the participation of Celestis and Elysium years ago.

“We’re really trying to do the right thing,” Mr. Thornton said. “I hope we can find a good path forward with the Navajo Nation.”

Tesla planned to start delivering its long-awaited Cybertruck pickup to customers on Thursday, entering one of the auto industry’s most lucrative but competitive segments.

With its stainless steel body and sharp angles, the Cybertruck is different from pickups from Ford Motor, General Motors and Ram that dominate the market. It’s Tesla’s first all-new passenger car in more than three years, but arrives long after other automakers started selling battery-powered pickups.

Analysts are therefore wondering who will buy the Cybertruck. Will it steal customers from traditional automakers, appeal to a different audience or be a costly flop? Tesla has said that hundreds of thousands of people have made a $100 refundable deposit on Cybertrucks. But there is no guarantee that these reservations will translate into sales.

“It does raise the question: what kind of customer is Tesla looking for?” said Ben Rose, president of Battle Road Research, a firm that tracks electric car and technology companies, who expects Tesla shares to outperform the market. “It appears that something was dropped from the lunar module to collect rocks on the moon.”

First shown to the public in 2019, the vehicle has suffered from production issues due to its odd design and the choice of stainless steel instead of the lighter steel or aluminum typically used in cars and trucks. Sales have been delayed by more than two years, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has warned investors that the company may not be able to produce the truck in large numbers until 2025.

“There will be enormous challenges in achieving volume production with Cybertruck and making Cybertruck cash flow positive,” Musk said in October. He sounded more optimistic on Wednesday, saying during an appearance at The New York Times DealBook Summit: “It will be by far the largest product launch in the world this year.”

There is also a lot at stake for traditional car manufacturers. Americans buy 2.5 million pickups a year, and those sales are a major source of profit for Ford, GM and Stellantis, which owns Ram, Jeep and Chrysler. In the United States, pickups are often sold as luxury vehicles. Affluent Europeans or Asians usually buy sedans and SUVs from Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Audi. Many affluent Americans buy Ford F-150s with 18-speaker sound systems and heated steering wheels.

Tesla is expected to announce pricing for the Cybertruck Thursday afternoon at an event in Austin, Texas, where the vehicle is built. Fully equipped all-wheel drive versions are expected to cost around $80,000 or more, with extra frills and technology. Tesla is expected to eventually offer a two-wheel drive version for around $50,000, but it may be several years before more affordable models come to market.

The first buyers will likely be affluent technology savants and collectors, Rose said. The Cybertruck is unlikely to have the same appeal to corporate fleet operators such as utilities or construction companies. The model also likely won’t be affordable or practical for landscapers, drywall installers, and other small business owners.

That is a relief for the traditional car manufacturers. About a fifth of the F-150s Ford sells go to business or government customers. Ford’s Pro division, which focuses on commercial customers, makes much more money as a percentage of its sales than the division that sells gasoline vehicles to private individuals. (The division that sells electric vehicles to consumers has lost money.)

Some companies purchase pickup trucks without beds and instead install specialized boxes or platforms suited to their needs. That will be impossible with the Cybertruck’s one-piece body.

Even when companies purchase trucks with standard beds, they often add accessories like toolboxes or ladder racks that won’t fit in the Cybertruck. (Most pickups from other manufacturers look and function much the same, making them suitable for these add-ons.)

So far, sales of electric pickups and other vehicles to commercial customers have been modest. But Ford sees potential to dominate a fast-growing market where there won’t be much competition from Tesla. Ford’s E-Transit electric vans have 50 percent of their market in the United States and Europe, Ford Pro CEO Ted Cannis said in an interview. The electric version of the F-150, known as the Lightning, has virtually no competition among commercial customers, he added.

Ford can generate additional revenue from corporate and government customers by selling them services such as software that tracks the locations of their employees and creates efficient routes. Ford will also help customers set up charging stations for pickups and vans. “We need to make the transition as easy as possible,” Mr Cannis said.

There is no indication that Tesla plans to offer similar services.

Many aspects of the Cybertruck have been a mystery. Ahead of Thursday’s event, investors and Tesla fans awaited news on whether the Cybertruck would, for example, have power tool outlets or be able to provide backup power to homes, a feature available on the F- 150 Lightning.

Electric pickups have been available since late 2021, when Rivian, a young electric vehicle company, started selling the R1T. Ford started selling the F-150 Lightning in 2022. GM started selling an electric version of its Silverado pickup in limited numbers this year.

So far, buyer reactions have been mixed. Electric pickups accounted for just 3 percent of the electric vehicle market in the first nine months of 2023. And only 2 percent of all pickups sold in the United States were electric, according to estimates from Kelley Blue Book and Battle Road.

But sales are growing faster than the overall auto market, even if the pace has slowed recently. According to Kelley Blue Book, F-150 Lightning sales grew 40 percent to more than 12,000 vehicles in the first nine months of the year. Sales of Rivian pickups grew 28 percent to more than 14,000 vehicles.