Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: Romain Doucelin / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 3:51 p.m., February 24, 2024
Joe Biden on Saturday welcomed the landing of an American probe on the Moon on Thursday, even if the device probably ended up lying down instead of landing vertically.
According to the American president, this is a “new era of space exploration” with the upcoming return of astronauts to the star.
American President Joe Biden on Saturday welcomed the landing - partially failed - of an American probe on the Moon on Thursday, saying that it inaugurates a "new era of space exploration" with the upcoming return of astronauts to the star.
Texas-based Intuitive Machines, the first private company to land on the Moon, announced Friday that its probe likely ended up lying on one side instead of landing vertically on the Moon, but that scientific data and images should despite everything being able to be recovered.
“America is once again leading the world to the Moon”
Despite this disappointment, “America is once again leading the world to the Moon,” Joe Biden said in a statement, citing President John F. Kennedy, who pushed the Apollo program in the 1960s. Because the moon landing Thursday is the first from an American device since the end of the legendary program in 1972 -- "an exciting new step in a new era of space exploration" according to the Democrat, saluting the teams from the company Intuitive Machines and The NASA.
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“This is the first of many missions with a public-private partnership, something that brings together our commercial and international partners to bring humans back to the Moon for the first time in decades,” he added. added.
Because the Nova-C lander carries scientific instruments from NASA, which wishes to explore the south pole of the Moon before sending its astronauts there, as part of its Artemis missions.