The first successful use of a radio telescope on the moon has kicked off a new era of astronomy that could shed light on the cosmic dark ages – despite a bumpy landing.

NASA’s ROLSES-1 (Radio wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath) telescope was mounted on the Odysseus lander, an Intuitive Machines spacecraft that made the first ever private lunar landing last year. While Odysseus was the first such spacecraft to survive a landing, it tipped on its side, rendering most of the equipment on…