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Intuitive Machines’ spacecraft Odysseus lands after a 73-minute descent, touching down near moon’s south pole. Plus, how Finland halved its suicide rate
Good morning.
The United States has returned to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years after a privately built spacecraft named Odysseus capped a nail-biting 73-minute descent from orbit with a touchdown near the moon’s south pole.
What’s the plan for further moon exploration? The so-called “soft landing” yesterday, which Steve Altemus, the company’s founder, had given only an 80% chance of succeeding, was designed to open a new era of lunar exploration as Nasa works towards a scheduled late-2026 mission to return humans there.
When was the last time the US landed on the moon? It was the first time any US-built spacecraft had landed on the moon since Nasa’s most recent crewed visit, the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972. Last month, Peregrine One, another partnership between the space agency and a private company, Astrobotic, failed to reach the moon.
How many children have been killed in Ukraine? Ukraine’s prosecutor general estimates that 528 children have been killed since the full-scale invasion began almost two years ago and 2,134 are missing. Another 19,500 are believed to have been abducted and taken to Russia, with some being forcibly re-educated with a “pro-Russia patriotic and military-related education”, a US report said.
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