After announcing yesterday that the end of his mission is imminentthe American company Intuitive Machines said Wednesday that the Ulysses spacecraft, the first private spacecraft to reach the Moon last week, it still works – for now.

“Odysseus” “continues to collect solar energy on the Moon, allowing to flight controllers to receive data from the south pole region” of Earth’s satellite, the company said in a post on the X platform.

On Tuesday the company said that, based on its analyses, the ship’s batteries would not last but only 10-20 more hours. Her teams are “analyzing the new solar charge data and using the additional time to maximize actions that will help future exploration” of the Moon, she said today.

The company plans to hold a press conference later today to provide more details on this mission.

The boat is powered by its solar panels. But because it did not land vertically, as predicted, but leaned to the side, the panels are not exposed to direct sunlight. Nevertheless, the mission is considered a success, as Bill Nelson, the head of the US space agency NASA, told reporters.

Although private, the mission was largely funded by NASA, which commissioned Intuitive Machines to carry six scientific instruments to the Moon. That contract was worth $118 million.

“We’re on day six of a mission that was supposed to last eight. And we get data from our six instruments,” Nelson explained.

NASA wants to explore this area of ​​the Moon before sending astronauts there as part of the manned Artemis missions. This area attracts the interest of major powers because it could hide large amounts of water, in the form of ice. This water could be used to produce fuel for spaceships or meet the needs of astronauts on the ground.