SpaceX has postponed the launch of Intuitive Machines' Odysseus Moon lander late Tuesday (Feb. 13) due to a temperature issue with the lander's liquid methane fuel.
The launch was scheduled on early Wednesday (Feb. 14) from Pad 39A of NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, but the attempt is now set to no earlier than 01:05 Eastern Time (06:05 UTC) on Thursday (Feb. 15), Space.com reported.
"Standing down from tonight's attempt due to off-nominal methane temperatures prior to stepping into methane load," the space launch provider said in an update on X (formerly Twitter).
Odysseus would use liquid methane as a propellant to fuel its propulsion and landing systems. It was supposed to be loaded into the lander shortly before the launch. NASA wrote in its update that it was during such operations that SpaceX detected "improper methane temperatures."
About Odysseus
The Odysseus lander would carry six NASA instruments to the Moon in addition to six commercial payloads as part of the space agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program (CLPS).
Should SpaceX and Intuitive Machines launch the spacecraft within the Feb. 14 to 16 launch window, they would be able to land on the Moon on Feb. 22. The next opportunity would mean that the launch attempt could slip to March.
With the failure of Astrobotic's Peregrine lander last month, Odysseus would be the US's next attempt to land on the Moon, with a target being the crater near the lunar south pole. Scientists with NASA and Intuitive Machines hope Odysseus will succeed where Peregrine failed.
If successful, IM-1 - as the mission is officially called - would mark the first-ever private mission to land on the Moon.
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