With Return To Moon, Americans Could Follow By Next Decade: Expert
GARDEN CITY, NY — For the time in more than a half-century, the U.S. has sent a spacecraft to the surface of the moon.
Unlike the Apollo landing in the late 1960s and early 1970s, no humans made the galactic journey this time.
Another difference is that the Odysseus landing is privately run, although NASA is part of the mission.
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“It was exciting to see because there were other attempts that, unfortunately, didn’t land successfully,” Andy Parton, president of the Cradle of Aviation, told Patch.
Several minutes had elapsed Thursday evening before there was confirmation that Odysseus stuck the landing. Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus told the world that it was a nail-biter as they had to overcome technical glitches.
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It’s one small step to ultimately getting Americans to put footprints back on the moon.
“The hope down the road with private industry is they can make supply trips. They can use private industry to send up modules or pods to land on the moon,” Parton said. “And then human beings go up there and put it all together.”
There have been missions that failed to land on the moon, but Parton said it’s all part of the larger learning process.
“[They] can correct things for the future,” Parton said. “You have to have those failures.”
He believes humans will return to the moon by 2030, as efforts are also on the move in China and India.
“The space race is kicking back into gear,” he said.
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