A probe from the American company Intuitive Machines landed on the Moon on Thursday 22 February, marking the first lunar landing by an American device for more than 50 years, and a first for a private company, Ednews reports citing Le Figaro.

"We can confirm without a doubt that our equipment is on the surface of the Moon, and that we are transmitting" a signal, said Tim Crain, head of Intuitive Machines, during the company's live video broadcast. The company then confirmed on X that the lunar lander had landed "upright" and started "sending data". The landing took place at 5.23pm Houston time in Texas, where the company's control room is located (11.23pm GMT).

The Nova-C lunar lander, which carries a number of NASA's scientific instruments, is just over four metres high. It took off last week from Florida and entered lunar orbit on Wednesday.

The descent took around an hour. Some of the lunar lander's lasers, which would normally be used to guide the craft, did not work, but the Intuitive Machines teams were able to replace them with a NASA instrument on board, which was only intended to be tested during the mission. About ten minutes before landing, a major thrust from the engine was used to brake Nova-C, preparing it for its final descent, vertically from an altitude of 30 metres. The lunar lander was then completely autonomous.

The Intuitive Machines lunar lander, the example of which used for this mission has been christened Odysseus, is also carrying six private cargo items. These include sculptures by contemporary artist Jeff Koons representing the phases of the Moon. The six NASA scientific instruments on board are concentrating on initial observations of this as yet little-explored region. Cameras on the underside of the lunar lander are analysing the amount of dust thrown up during the descent, in order to compare it with the Apollo lunar landings. Another instrument will study lunar plasma (a layer of gas charged with electricity), and will measure radio waves coming from the Sun and other planets.

Odysseus, which is powered by its solar panels, is expected to operate for around seven days from the time of its landing, before night sets in over the lunar south pole.