Private US moon lander launched, eyes touchdown that will kick off new space race

n America's first quest to land on moon in over 25 years, a lunar lander designed by Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines was launched successfully from Florida early on Thursday.Nova-C lander, dubbed Odysseus, lifted off shortly after 1am EST (0600 GMT) atop a Falcon 9 rocket flown by Elon Musk' SpaceX from Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. The mission, "1M-1", is hoping to be the first non-government attempt at achieving a soft touchdown on Moon. It also aims to land the first US robot on the lunar surface since the Apollo missions more than five decades ago.