Odysseus lunar lander, 1st US craft on the moon in 50 years, has died and will 'not complete another call home'

Odysseus, the first U.S. lander to park on the moon in more than 50 years, has "permanently faded" and will not be waking up again, the company that built it announced on Saturday (March 23).

The moon lander, nicknamed Odie, touched down near the lunar south pole on Feb. 22 after a nail-biting approach and a malfunction in the spacecraft's landing guidance system. The spacecraft  did so with a face plant, however, landing on its side after one of its six legs snapped. The lander's stumble only partially affected the success of its mission, which was to study the behavior of moon dust during spacecraft landings and take measurements of the conditions in the little-explored lunar region.

Odysseus, which was built by Houston-based company Intuitive Machines, powered down one week after landing as lunar night began for 14 days. Flight controllers ordered the spacecraft to snooze for three weeks, while the moon's south pole faced away from the sun, but they hoped Odie would reawaken once sunlight hit its solar panels again.

"Intuitive Machines started listening for Odie's wake-up signal on March 20, when we projected enough sunlight would potentially charge the lander's power system and turn on its radio," representatives of the company wrote on X, formerly called Twitter.

Odysseus' mission was not intended to survive the harsh temperatures and darkness of the lunar night, but "flight controllers tucked Odie into a configuration that could call home if various systems outperformed manufacturer expectations," Intuitive Machines representatives added.

Related: Humanity's future on the moon: Why Russia, India and other countries are racing to the lunar south pole

On Feb. 22, the lander sent back a final farewell image before it was plunged into darkness and its systems shut down.