---
title: "Moon Lander Beams Back Dazzling Selfies With Earth"
description: "Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lunar lander, just sent back some stunning selfies with the Earth in the background as it crosses the gulf."
date: "2024-02-18"
modified: "2024-02-18"
authors:
  - name: "Jon Christian"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/moon-lander-selfies-earth"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Moon"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "intuitive machines"
  - "moon"
  - "NASA"
  - "the digest"
---

# Moon Lander Beams Back Dazzling Selfies With Earth

![Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lunar lander, just sent back some stunning selfies with the Earth in the background as it crosses the gulf.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/moon-lander-selfies-earth-1.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Katie Jones/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images\</em\>*

## Moon Unit

Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lunar lander, which [launched aboard a SpaceX rocket](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-private-moon-lander>) this week and is now en-route to the Earth's natural satellite, just sent back some stunning selfies with the Earth in the background as it crosses the gulf.

"Intuitive Machines successfully transmitted its first IM-1 mission images to Earth on February 16, 2024," Intuitive Machines [wrote on X-formerly-Twitter](<https://twitter.com/Int_Machines/status/1758899202174685589>) alongside the photos. "The images were captured shortly after separation from SpaceX's second stage on Intuitive Machines’ first journey to the Moon under NASA's CLPS initiative."

## Say Cheese

The photos are magnificent. Here they are, in all their glory:

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GGjS-m0XQAAMN29-1200x900.jpg>)

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/moon-lander-selfies-earth-1200x900.jpg>)

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GGjTq7vWQAAq0R2-1200x900.jpg>)

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GGjTrwfWQAAxVQX-1200x900.jpg>)

If it successfully touches down on the Moon — a major "if," given the [many failures](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/russia-good-lander-crashed-moon>) at [lunar landings](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/photo-japanese-moon-lander-nose>) we've seen over the past few years — Odysseus will be the first-ever successful private Moon landing.

It'd also be a huge coup for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services, the agency's attempt to contract private companies to send increasingly ambitious payloads to the Moon. Unfortunately, the program got off to an inauspicious start when its first mission — Astrobotic Technology's Peregrine Mission One — [failed shortly after launch](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/photo-damaged-moon-lander-astrobotic>) last month and later [burned up in Earth's atmosphere](<https://futurism.com/us-moon-lander-dying-fiery-death>).

**More on the Moon:** [*Experts Warn Against Strip Mining the Moon*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/experts-against-moon-mining>)

## Author
I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net>)