When is the moon landing? Watch as Texas company attempts to return to lunar surface

Nate Chute, Austin American-Statesman
Updated ·2 min read
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After over 50 years since the last American moon landing, a Texas-based company hopes to land the first commercial U.S. vehicle on the lunar surface.

Named "Odysseus," the probe built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines hitched a ride aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It launched just after midnight last Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The attempt comes after India landed their first spacecraft on the moon in 2023, the fourth nation ever to do so. Here's how to watch the landing attempt and what to know about the mission:

What time is the moon landing for Odysseus? Watch the 2024 moon landing live stream here

As of this writing, Intuitive Machines is targeting touchdown of Odysseus for 4:30 p.m. Central Time. You can watch the attempt live beginning at 4 p.m. today right here:

Odysseus isn't carrying astronauts to the moon for NASA. How many people have walked on the moon?

During nine Apollo missions between 1968 and 1972, 24 astronauts went to the moon. This includes the three-man crew of Apollo 8, who orbited the moon in 1968 but did not land.

In fact, only 12 people have ever walked on the moon. All American astronauts, they include:

  • Neil Armstrong

  • Buzz Aldrin

  • Pete Conrad

  • Alan Bean

  • Alan Shepard

  • Edgar Mitchell

  • David Scott

  • James Irwin

  • John Young

  • Charles Duke

  • Harrison Schmitt

  • Gene Cernan

How much did NASA pay for moon mission? What did Odysseus take to the moon?

Intuitive Machines' lunar mission is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS.

The U.S. space agency has a budget of $2.6 billion in contracts available through 2028 to pay private companies to place scientific payloads on private robotic landers like Odysseus bound for the lunar surface.

Intuitive Machines' Odysseus moon lander beamed home its first images Friday a day after it hitched a ride to orbit aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Intuitive Machines' Odysseus moon lander beamed home its first images Friday a day after it hitched a ride to orbit aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

As the primary customer for the Odysseus mission, NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to take its scientific payloads to the moon. The scientific instruments will collect valuable data for NASA as it prepares to send astronauts back to the lunar surface for its since-delayed Artemis program.

When will people walk on the moon again?

NASA had hoped to land astronauts on the lunar surface in 2025 with astronauts aboard Artemis III, but the mission was delayed. A 2023 report concluded preparations would likely not be complete until 2027. Whether the program is able to take off or not this decade remains to be seen.

Getting people to the moon is part of NASA's long-term goals. Establishing a permanent human presence on and around the moon could serve as a base of operations for future missions to Mars in the future.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: When is the 2024 moon landing? Live stream of Odysseus lunar mission