The private Odysseus lunar lander will attempt to land on the dusty surface after a week-long voyage. On board is NASA tech which the agency hopes will pave the way for human missions later in the decade. Watch as it happens in the stream below.
By Thomas Moore, science correspondentMission control has now fired Odysseus's engine to begin what's called 'descent orbit insertion'.The spacecraft has been looping around the moon at an altitude of about 60 miles and at a speed of just under 4,000 mph.
By using the engine to brake it will reduce the altitude to around six miles.From the moment the command is sent to fire the engine the spacecraft is on its own. It'll use cameras and laser guidance to compare its position to stored maps of the moon's surface. This first stage of the descent will take around 50 minutes.
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