As Albert Einstein postulated, everything is relative, even history.
It was July 1969 when Neil Armstrong became the first astronaut to set foot on the Moon and uttered the famous phrase “one small step for man and one giant leap for humanity.”
His trip was with Apollo 11 and the euphoria skyrocketed. But in December 1972, the Apollo 12 expedition became the last mission to stop on Earth’s natural satellite.
NASA, the US space agency, shelved those trips. Over time, this created a feeling of frustration, gave wings to the conspirators who claimed that the landing on the Moon was, in truth, a Hollywood setup, and was one of the elements that fostered in certain sectors the feeling that The United States was in decline, while other countries did reach the goal.
So, when the Odysseus landed on the moon this Thursday, after more than half a century of hiatus, in an operation that was not without suspense in its key minutes, the experts once again spoke of a “historic moment,” in a clear demonstration that everything is relative and that it returns to a step further back from the past and is celebrated as a great achievement.
This mission is the first for a private commercial company. The ship, known by the nickname Odie, belongs to Intuitive Machines, a company based in Houston, Texas. NASA has not participated in the construction of the vehicle and is not directly involved in managing the flight. But it contributed $118 million for this project to carry a set of scientific instruments that can help in future missions with astronauts from the federal space agency.
Odysseus, which took off from Florida on February 15, landed on Thursday at 6:24 p.m. (US east coast). It was expected that communication would be lost for a minute, but more than ten had passed and there was no news from the ship. In the control center there were nerves due to the uncertainty.
Tim Craig, technological chief of the operation, showed hope from control: “We are not dead yet.” It was soon confirmed that, with a delay of 13 minutes, the ship was at its destination. “Our team is above ground, congratulations to the entire team,” Craig said.
Odie was operational, but it is unclear whether it will be able to achieve its scientific objectives. On the approach they already had to fix a navigation malfunction, which was overcome thanks to a non-operational NASA experimental instrument, which was ultimately useful.
The spacecraft, no larger than a telephone booth, landed next to the Malapert A crater at the south pole. It is a region of perpetual darkness that is very interesting as frozen water has been detected. That ice could be used in the future by astronauts for drinking, oxygen and even fuel for space vehicles en route to Mars.
The US regains its pride, although today it is the billionaires who drive space colonization.
