US moon landing 2024 LIVE — Odysseus spacecraft lands near lunar south pole for first time since Apollo mission
A SPACECRAFT from the United States has landed on the moon for the first time since the historic Apollo mission in 1972.
The private lunar lander, called Odysseus, touched down at 6:23 pm ET, six days after it blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The successful 620,000-mile journey and landing marked the first time the United States has returned to the moon in over 50 years.
Owned by Texas-based Intuitive Machines, the uncrewed craft was carrying NASA instruments that will help prepare the US for future human exploration of the lunar surface.
NASA's mission commanders called the landing a "nail-biter" as they were hit with communication issues during touchdown.
However, they eventually announced that Odysseus "found his new home" and welcomed the craft to the moon.
Read our US moon landing live blog for the latest...
Unmanned spacecraft travels much faster
An unmanned spacecraft can reach the Moon a lot faster.
The fastest time was set by Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft, where it only took eight hours and thirty five minutes for it to travel to the Moon.
A fuel efficient European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft called SMART 1 took 13.5 months to get there in 2003.
How long a trip to the moon takes
It takes around three days on average for a manned spacecraft to reach the Moon.
This is based on the nine manned missions to the Moon and the six which landed on its surface.
The exact average time for all these missions was about three days and six hours.
The time it takes does depend on several factors, including where the Moon is in orbit, the size of the spacecraft and the fuel it uses.
Lunar landing happening today
Today is the first US lunar landing attempt since the Apollo era, with an unmanned spacecraft scheduled to touch down on the moon.
At approximately 5:50 pm ET, the mission, which was created by NASA and Houston-based Intuitive Machines, is scheduled to land the Odysseus spacecraft, also known as "Odie," close to the lunar south pole.