First Successful Landing on the Moon in Half a Century

A spacecraft has executed the first American landing on the moon's surface in over 50 years, but it was only able to send a weak signal, prompting mission controllers to quickly seek a better connection. With this achievement, the United States has returned to the moon for the first time since the "Apollo" landing in 1972. Despite intermittent communications, Intuitive Machines confirmed that it landed upright. However, no additional details were provided, including whether the spacecraft reached its intended destination near the moon's south pole. The spacecraft, built and launched by Intuitive Machines, a Houston-based manufacturer and operator, navigated around the moon on Thursday in the first attempt at an American moon landing in more than half a century and the first-ever attempt conducted entirely by the private sector.