Intuitive Machines’ moon lander sent home its first images and they’re breathtaking

Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander is properly on its solution to the moon after launching with no hitch on Thursday, but it surely managed to snap a couple of unimaginable pictures of Earth whereas it was nonetheless near dwelling. The corporate shared the primary batch of pictures from the IM-1 mission on X right this moment after confirming in an earlier publish that the spacecraft is “in glorious well being.” Together with a view of Earth and a few partial selfies of the Nova-C lander, nicknamed Odysseus, you’ll be able to even see the SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage falling away within the distance after separation.

Odysseus is on monitor to make its moon touchdown try on February 22, and up to now seems to be performing properly. The workforce posted a sequence of updates on X on the finish of the week confirming the lander has handed some key milestones forward of its landing, together with engine firing. This marked “the first-ever in-space ignition of a liquid methane and liquid oxygen engine,” in accordance with Intuitive Machines.