Photo: A Private Moon Landing

Odysseus became the first private spacecraft to have a successful soft moon landing—kind of.

On February 22, Odysseus became the first private spacecraft to have a (largely) successful soft moon landing. It launched seven days earlier on another private sector success, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. Developed by Intuitive Machines, the mission carried cargo from NASA in addition to commercial and academic customers. Odysseus landed on its side, however, limiting how much data it was able to send in the limited number of days it had before being engulfed in the cold lunar night.