Intuitive Machines' lunar lander is well on its way to the Moon after its smooth launch on Thursday, but it managed to snap some incredible images of Earth while still close to home. The company shared the first batch of images from the IM-1 mission on X today after confirming in a previous article that the spacecraft is “in excellent health.” Besides a view of Earth and some partial selfies of the Nova-C lander, nicknamed Odysseus, you can even see the second stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 falling in the distance after separation.
Intuitive Machines successfully transmitted its first images from the IM-1 mission to Earth on February 16, 2024. The images were captured shortly after the separation of @SpaceXsecond stage of Intuitive Machines' first trip to the Moon under @NASAof the CLPS initiative. pic.twitter.com/9LccL6q5tF
– Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 17, 2024
Odysseus is set to attempt to land on the moon on February 22 and so far seems to be working well. The team released a series of updates to X at the end of the week, confirming that the lander completed some key milestones before landing, including firing the engine. This is “the first ever ignition of a liquid methane and liquid oxygen engine in space,” according to Intuitive Machines.