The Intuitive Machines spacecraft, a private US moon lander launched on February 15, has successfully transmitted its first IM-1 mission images to Earth.
The stunning pictures capture Earth from space as part of the Nova-C lander's mission, aiming to conduct the first US lunar touchdown in more than half a century.
These images were captured shortly after separation from the SpaceX rocket's second stage during Intuitive Machines' inaugural journey to the Moon under NASA's CLPS initiative, as stated by Intuitive Machines on X.
The Intuitive Machines's lander, dubbed Odysseus, lifted off shortly after 1 am local time on February 15 atop a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket flown by Elon Musk' SpaceX from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
If all goes well, the Nova-C lander is expected to land on the moon on February 22 to deliver experiments for NASA and commercial customers to the lunar surface under a $118 million contract between SpaceX and NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme.
The IM-1 flight is carrying six NASA payloads of instruments designed to gather data about the lunar environment ahead of NASA's planned return of astronauts to the moon later this decade.
If successful, the flight would represent the first controlled descent to the lunar surface by a U.S. spacecraft since the final Apollo crewed moon mission in 1972, and the first by a private company.
The feat also would mark the first journey to the lunar surface under NASA's Artemis moon program, as the U.S. races to return astronauts to Earth's natural satellite before China lands its own crewed spacecraft there.