When your spacecraft lands at an unexpected angle on the moon, creating critical communication challenges, you have only one chance to fix it. The team at private space exploration company Intuitive Machines had to develop multiple software patches quickly, verify them through automated pipelines and deploy fixes from a quarter of a million miles away to get their lander functioning again.
This scenario played out in February 2024 when Odysseus became the first U.S. commercial spacecraft to land on the moon in over 50 years. The successful…
