Launch of a Private American Lunar Lander

The lunar landing vehicle created by the Houston-based company "Intuitive Machines" launched from Florida early Thursday morning, on a mission to achieve the first American landing on the moon in over half a century, and the first by a privately-owned spacecraft. The company's Nova-C lander, named "Odyssey," took off shortly after 1 AM Eastern Time (0600 GMT) aboard the Falcon 9 rocket, launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. A live online broadcast from NASA and SpaceX showed the two-stage rocket, standing 25 stories tall, lifting off from the launch pad and soaring into the dark sky over Florida's Atlantic coastline. The launch, previously scheduled for Wednesday morning, was delayed by 24 hours due to irregular temperatures detected in the liquid methane used in the vehicle's propulsion system.