■Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus is set to land on the moon today.

■Will be the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon in over 50 years.

■NASA paid $118 million for the delivery of six payloads and will livestream the landing.

Odysseus, a robotic moon lander developed by Houston-based private company Intuitive Machines, is set to make a historic landing on the moon today at 2:30 p.m., PT. If successful, this will be the first time in more than 50 years that a U.S. spacecraft has landed on the moon and the first time for a private spacecraft to make a soft landing on the lunar surface.

The 14-foot-tall Nova-C lander, nicknamed Odysseus, entered the moon’s orbit on Wednesday, slowing down enough for the moon’s gravity to pull it into an orbit 57 miles above the lunar surface. The landing time was moved up by 19 minutes based on this orbit.

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How to Watch

NASA, which paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to deliver six payloads to the moon, will be streaming coverage of the IM-1 mission’s landing attempt starting at 1 p.m., PT, today on NASA TV. Watch the official NASA livestream below:

According to Intuitive Machines, the lander is in “excellent health.” However, landing is the biggest challenge yet, as previous attempts from the commercial sector have failed. Private companies from Japan and Israel have also reached lunar orbit, but crashed on the lunar surface in 2023 and 2019, respectively.

During the landing attempt, the spacecraft will fire its engines to descend to around six miles above the lunar surface. Its cameras and lasers will feed data to onboard navigation computers that will autonomously guide it to a safe place on the surface. At about 100 feet, it will flip itself to a vertical position with its landing legs pointed down.

The lander is expected to operate for about a week until the sun sets on the lunar south pole region where it’s landing. The ultimate goal is to establish a “crewed base” in the area by the end of this decade.

Read more at Newser.