Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Over the Moon with Odysseus. Following lunar orbit insertion on February 21, the lander continues to be in excellent health in lunar orbit.
Image credit: Intuitive Machines

The prolonged wait for the true status of the private Moon lander, Odysseus, is indeed a nail-bitter blended in with the sounds of silence

According to Intuitive Machines, the status of the recent arrival on the Moon is that the lander is “alive and well.” At this posting, no surface imagery has been released.

Reportedly, flight controllers are communicating and commanding the vehicle to download science data.

“The lander has good telemetry and solar charging,” according to Intuitive Machines.

Image credit: Intuitive Machines

Overall health

What’s ahead is trying to figure out more about the Odysseus vehicle’s latitude and longitude, overall health, and attitude (orientation).

Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus will participate in a press conference later today, hopefully filling in the blanks.

Facing Earth

But from master satellite tracker, Scott Tilley in an X (Twitter) posting:

“Yes, imagine you are a box. Only one side of you (a box) has a mouth and your voice will only carry for a very limited angular cone and your mouth can’t move much to re-aim. So if you landed in the wrong location or with the wrong side of your box facing Earth…No one hears you.”

Artwork caption credit: Scott Tilley

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