Watch Live: A Private Moon Landing Is Set To Make History Tomorrow

Exciting news for space enthusiasts! This week, the Moon is set to welcome a new visitor from Earth – and you can witness the whole lunar landing right here. NASA, in collaboration with private space exploration company Intuitive Machines, is gearing up for a touchdown on the Moon at 12:32 pm EST (5:32 pm UTC) on Thursday, March 6.

The mission, known as Intuitive Machines 2 (IM-2) landing, will be covered live starting no earlier than 11:30 am EST, just an hour before the scheduled touchdown. NASA will also provide live blog updates from 11 am EST onwards. The IM-2 mission was launched on February 26 via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. If all goes well, the mission will utilize Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander, Athena, to analyze lunar soil for valuable resources and detect the presence of water ice on the Moon’s surface.

Athena successfully entered the Moon’s orbit on March 3 and is currently making final preparations for this week’s landing near Shackleton Crater’s ridge, approximately 160 kilometers (99 miles) from the lunar south pole. This region offers a unique phenomenon where the Sun stays low on the horizon but never fully sets, similar to Earth’s midnight Sun.

In addition to the Athena lander, the mission will deploy a Micro Nova Hopper called Grace to explore the local area. On March 14, Athena is expected to witness a lunar eclipse from the Moon, a rare event where the Sun, Earth, and Moon align with Earth positioned between the two. Observers on Earth will witness a lunar eclipse as the Moon fades into darkness, while Athena will experience the Sun drifting across the horizon before reemerging.

One of the highlights of the IM-2 mission is the implementation of a 4G network for communication and data transmission between multiple vehicles on the Moon. Known as the Nokia Lunar Surface Communication System (LSCS), this will be the first cellular network on the Moon. Thierry E. Klein, President of Bell Labs Solutions Research at Nokia, believes that this technology can revolutionize communication for future missions to the Moon and Mars.

With groundbreaking technology, unprecedented exploration, and even a lunar eclipse on the horizon, the IM-2 mission signifies another significant step in private space travel – so be sure not to miss it!

Humans are making remarkable strides in the Solar System at present. Recently, Blue Ghost, a spacecraft funded by NASA and operated by Firefly Aerospace, successfully landed on the Moon. Meanwhile, AstroForge has launched its new spacecraft, Odin, aiming to become the first private company to reach deep space. Exciting times indeed in the world of space exploration!