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On Feb. 22, Intuitive Machines\u2019 Nova-C lander, called Odysseus, completed a seven-day journey to lunar orbit and softly landed near crater Malapert A in the South Pole region of the Moon at 6:24 p.m. EST.\u00a0On Feb. 24, NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft passed over the landing site at an altitude of about 56 miles (90 km) and photographed Odysseus.<\/p>\n
Odysseus came to rest at 80.13 degrees south latitude, 1.44 degrees east longitude, 8,461 feet (2,579 meters) elevation, within a degraded one-kilometer diameter crater where the local terrain is sloped at 12 degrees.<\/p>\n
Odysseus\u00a0marks the first successful soft landing of NASA\u2019s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and the first time that new NASA science instruments and technology demonstrations are operating on the Moon in more than 50 years.<\/p>\n
LRO is managed by\u00a0<\/em>NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/em>\u00a0in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the agency\u2019s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Launched on June 18, 2009, LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the Moon.\u00a0Arizona State University manages and operates the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera,\u00a0LROC.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n