New images emerged on Monday (February 26) from the Odysseus' moon mission, with the photos showing its vertical descent to the Malapert A landing site.

'Welcome to the Moon': US achieves first moon landing in half a century

According to Intuitive Machines, it is the furthest south any vehicle has been able to land on the Moon and establish communication with ground controllers.

The moon lander is the first private spacecraft ever to reach the lunar surface, and the first from the U.S. since 1972, the company behind the vehicle said on Friday (February 23).

The Odysseus, a 13-foot-tall hexagonal cylinder, made it to the surface intact on Thursday (February 22), analysis of data by flight engineers showed the six-legged craft apparently tripped over its own feet as it neared the end of its final descent, company officials said at a briefing the next day.

The uncrewed robot spacecraft reached the lunar surface on Thursday after a nail-biting final approach and descent in which a problem with its navigation system surfaced, requiring flight controllers on the ground to employ an untested work-around to avoid what could have been a catastrophic crash landing.