Private craft makes first US moon landing in 51 yrs
A private lander on Thursday made the first US touchdown on the moon in more than 50 years, but managed just a weak signal back until flight controllers scrambled to gain better contact.
Despite the spotty communication, Intuitive Machines, the company that built and managed the craft, confirmed that it had landed upright. But it did not provide additional details, including whether the lander had reached its intended destination near the moon’s south pole. The company ended its live webcast soon after identifying a lone, weak signal from the lander.
“What we can confirm, without a doubt, is our equipment is on the surface of the moon,” mission director Tim Crain reported as tension built in the company’s Houston control center.
Added Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus: “I know this was a nail-biter, but we are on the surface and we are transmitting. Welcome to the moon.”
Data was finally starting to stream in, according to a company announcement two hours after touchdown.
The landing put the US back on the surface for the first time since Nasa’s famed Apollo moonwalkers.
Intuitive Machines also became the first private business to pull off a lunar landing, a feat achieved by only five countries. Another US company, Astrobotic Technology, gave it a shot last month, but never made it to the moon, and the lander crashed back to Earth. Both companies are part of a Nasa-supported program to kick-start the lunar economy.
Astrobotic was among the first to relay congratulations. “An incredible achievement. We can’t wait to join you on the lunar surface in the near future,” the company said via X, formerly Twitter.
Intuitive Machines “aced the landing of a lifetime,” Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted.
The final few hours before touchdown were loaded with extra stress when the lander’s laser navigation system failed. The company’s flight control team had to press an experimental Nasa laser system into action, with the lander taking an extra lap around the moon to allow time for the last-minute switch.
With this change finally in place, Odysseus descended from a moon-skimming orbit and guided itself toward the surface, aiming for a relatively flat spot among all the cliffs and craters near the south pole.
As the designated touchdown time came and went, controllers at the company’s command center anxiously awaited a signal from the spacecraft some 400,000 kilometers away. After close to 15 minutes, the company announced it had received a weak signal from the lander.
Launched last week, the sixfooted carbon fiber and titanium lander — towering 14 feet — carried six experiments for Nasa. The space agency gave the company $118 million to build and fly the lander, part of its effort to commercialize lunar deliveries ahead of the planned return of astronauts in a few years.
Intuitive Machines’ entry is the latest in a series of landing attempts by countries and private outfits looking to explore the moon and, if possible, capitalize on it. Japan scored a lunar landing last month, joining earlier triumphs by Russia, US, China and India.
The US bowed out of the lunar landscape in 1972 after Nasa’s Apollo program put 12 astronauts on the surface. Astrobotic of Pittsburgh gave it a shot last month, but was derailed by a fuel leak that resulted in the lander plunging back through Earth’s atmosphere and burning up.
Intuitive Machines’ target was 300 kilometers shy of the south pole, around 80 degrees latitude and closer to the pole than any other spacecraft has come. T
The solar-powered lander was intended to operate for a week, until the long lunar night.
A Texas man made almost $2 million by illegally trading on his wife’s conversations with her BP Plc colleagues, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in its latest case about couples eavesdropping while working from home.
For months, Tyler Loudon, 42 bought shares in TravelCenters of America Inc., the SEC said on Thursday. He liquidated his brokerage and retirement accounts and in February 2023, when BP announced it was buying TravelCenters of America at a 74% premium, Loudon made a $1.76 million profit. His wife, then a BP mergers and acquisitions manager who was working on the deal, was unaware of his trading, the regulator said.
According to lawsuits from the SEC and US prosecutors in Texas, Tyler got the idea to buy TravelCenters after learning of the potential deal from his wife, who was working on the deal in a home office 20 feet away.
When he ultimately confessed to her, she moved out of the house and later filed for divorce. According to the SEC, Loudon stunned his wife by admitting he bought the shares to make enough money so she could work shorter hours.
She reported his trades to BP, who then fired her despite finding no evidence that she knowingly leaked the deal, according to the SEC.
Loudon pleaded guilty to securities fraud in Houston federal court and agreed to forfeit $1.76 million of illegal proceeds, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani in Houston.
Loudon, of Houston, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his scheduled May 17 sentencing before US District Judge Sim Lake.
He also agreed to settle a related US Securities and Exchange Commission civil case, including by paying a civil fine.
A lawyer for Loudon did not immediately respond to requests for comment. BP did not immediately respond to separate requests.
The deal to buy TravelCenters of America Inc. for about $1.3 billion gave the British oil major access to a network of US gas stations. At the time of the transaction, TravelCenters had a network of 281 locations in 44 states.
Since the work-from-home era began at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the SEC has brought multiple insider-trading cases involving information overheard or seen while working from home with a significant other.
According to the SEC, Loudon’s eavesdropping extended abroad. While traveling in Rome, the SEC said Loudon sat nearby his wife while she worked on the TravelCenters deal from a small rented apartment.