A Houston-based company completed the United States’ first successful lunar landing in more than 50 years, after a dramatic touchdown on Thursday night.
It was feared the landing of the hexagon-shaped Odysseus would have to be abandoned or delayed after its onboard laser based navigation system failed.
However technicians managed to use a Nasa instrument which was part of the payload to complete the mission.
It was described as a “white knuckle” ride by Bill Nelson, the Nasa administrator.
At about 11.40pm UK time, word from mission control came “our equipment is on the moon”, followed by ecstatic applause from the team on the ground.
This was the first successful moonshot by the US since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
The last attempt, in mid-January, ended in failure after the Peregrine landing craft started leaking fuel, which left it unable to carry out the planned soft landing.
Instead, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology turned the Peregrine into a satellite, testing scientific instruments as it flew around space before being disposed of by flying into the earth’s atmosphere at high speed.
The purpose of the trip is to help Nasa prepare for landing on the moon under the Artemis mission in the future with the American space agency effectively hitching a ride on Odysseus.