Odysseus touches down on moon

Cape Canaveral: A private lander named Odysseus touched down on the moon Thursday but managed just a weak signal back, as flight controllers scrambled to gain better contact with the first US spacecraft to reach the lunar surface in more than 50 years.

The lander's choreographed descent was the first for the US since 1972, when Apollo 17's Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt left the last bootprints in the desolate gray dust. Despite the spotty communication, Intuitive Machines, the company that built and managed the craft, confirmed that it had landed.