EagleCam¶
IM-1 · landed · commercial payload
A 1.5U CubeSat camera system built by Embry-Riddle students. It was to eject from the lander about 30 m (100 feet) above the surface and photograph the landing from outside: the first third-person image of a spacecraft landing on the Moon. It also carried a Kennedy electrodynamic dust shield for its lens and was to send data by Wi-Fi from the surface.
PI: Troy Henderson, director of the Space Technologies Laboratory (project lead faculty)
Built by: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Space Technologies Laboratory (Daytona Beach, Florida); dust shield from NASA Kennedy's Swamp Works (university)
| Technology | deployable camera CubeSat (landing imaging; surface Wi-Fi; dust shield test) |
| Moon Base need | #0103, #0801 (The study's reading, and weak. No NASA source ties EagleCam to a Moon Base need. Its Wi-Fi link from the surface touches surface communications (#0103), and its dust-shield test touches dust mitigation (#0801). Neither returned results.) |
| Route onto CLPS | commercial; Intuitive Machines offered Embry-Riddle a ride: its CEO Steve Altemus, an Embry-Riddle alumnus, challenged students to build a CubeSat that the company would take to the Moon. The partnership was announced by 20 October 2020. Not a NASA payload.; 2020-10-20 |
| Timeline | first funding not in public sources (the project started by 2020); first flight test 2023-12-19 (prototype on New Shepard NS-24); a Blue Origin flight of test cameras planned for early 2021 is not confirmed in the sources; selected 2020-10-20 (partnership announced); launch 2024-02-15; landing 2024-02-22 |
| On the Moon | partly operated |
| FO | none |
Flights before the Moon¶
- sounding rocket or balloon (not FO): Blue Origin New Shepard, NS-24 (suborbital rocket), 2023-12-19. A prototype of the EagleCam CubeSat, two months before IM-1. Results are not in the saved sources. FO supported other payloads on this same flight, but FO's list of its technologies on NS-24 does not include EagleCam, so this was not an FO flight as far as the sources show.
"A prototype of the EagleCam CubeSat flew onboard the [[Blue Origin NS-24]] return-to-flight mission on December 19, 2023"
— Wikipedia article "IM-1", revision 1376835835 of 2026-09-26T14:47:54Z, Wikipedia, revision 1376835835"The 14 technologies aboard the flight aim to address some of the opportunities and obstacles"
— Flight Summaries - NASA, FO's 19 Dec 2023 flight; EagleCam not in its list
- other: suborbital flight of test cameras (vehicle not named; the October 2020 plan was a Blue Origin flight), early 2021. Durability of the camera components under launch conditions. The record lists this flight as planned but 'not confirmed in the sources'; a July 2021 Mini-Circuits blog on the project, says it took place.
"several test cameras were sent into suborbital flight in early 2021 to test the technology’s durability"
— Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Partners with Intuitive Machines and Mini-Circuits to Design…, Mini-Circuits blog, 27 July 2021"the team will send test cameras aboard a Blue Origin suborbital flight in early 2021 to prove its concept"
— Eagles to Land First Student Project on Moon to Snap Selfie of Lunar Landing, plan, October 2020
- aircraft (not FO): NASA C-9 and Zero Gravity Corporation 727 reduced-gravity flights (Kennedy Electrodynamic Dust Shield, the line of EagleCam's lens dust shield; before FO existed), 2008. The transparent electrodynamic dust shield clearing JSC-1A simulant and Apollo 16 dust in a vacuum chamber at lunar gravity. Concerns the dust-shield element only, not the camera CubeSat; the Kennedy lab's timeline places EagleCam (2024) in this same development line.
"2008 – Reduced gravity flight JSC-1A simulants and Apollo 16 highland samples Demonstrated EDS will work at lunar gravity and with actual lunar dust sample."
— NTRS 20250004631, EDS development timeline"2024 – Eagle Cam (2024) with ERAU [University led project] (IM1)"
— NTRS 20250004631, same timeline"Experiments conducted on several reduced gravity flights to simulate lunar gravity and vacuum conditions"
— NTRS 20205006073
- ISS or MISSE: ISS, MISSE-11 (Kennedy Electrodynamic Dust Shield; an FO MISSE selection per FO's FY2017 report), 2019-04 (launch) to 2020. Twelve dust-shield panels, two of them powered, exposed for about a year in the station's wake to verify materials and the power supply in space. Dust-shield element only.
"In April 2019, the EDS experiment was launched to the International Space Station (ISS)"
— NTRS 20205006073"MISSE-11 selection; active dust mitigation technology using dynamic electric fields"
— FO annual report, FY2017, Electrodynamic Dust Shield Experiment entry (page 25)"2020 and 2021 – MISSE-11 and MISSE-15 flights EDS material testing in space."
— NTRS 20250004631
- ISS or MISSE: ISS, MISSE-15 (Kennedy Electrodynamic Dust Shield), 2021. Further dust-shield material testing in space. Dust-shield element only.
"2020 and 2021 – MISSE-11 and MISSE-15 flights EDS material testing in space."
— NTRS 20250004631
Heritage hardware¶
- design heritage (dust shield): The lens dust shield came from NASA Kennedy's Swamp Works, the group behind the Electrodynamic Dust Shield that later flew on Blue Ghost Mission 1. The sources do not say how the two units relate.
"In addition to the team's primary mission objectives, they also set out to test an"
— Embry‑Riddle Celebrates Historic Moon Landing, an electrodynamic dust shield"created by the [[Swamp Works]] facility at [[Kennedy Space Center]]"
— Wikipedia article "IM-1", revision 1376835835 of 2026-09-26T14:47:54Z
Funding before the lunar flight¶
- Embry-Riddle and Intuitive Machines (the ride); a cooperative agreement with NASA Kennedy for the dust shield. No amounts are public, and no federal award to Embry-Riddle for EagleCam was found in USAspending. (university and company; NASA Kennedy cooperative agreement (dust shield); 2020-2024): amount not in public sources
"NASA/Kennedy Space Center have signed a cooperative agreement to test an electrostatic dust removal system"
— Eagles to Land First Student Project on Moon to Snap Selfie of Lunar Landing
How it got onto CLPS¶
"Intuitive Machines, the company developing the Nova-C, offered"
— Eagles to Land First Student Project on Moon to Snap Selfie of Lunar Landing, Embry-Riddle news, 20 Oct 2020"Build a CubeSat, and Intuitive Machines will take it to the moon."
— Embry‑Riddle Celebrates Historic Moon Landing
On the Moon¶
EagleCam did not eject during descent: after the last-minute software patch for the lander's altimeter it was powered off and stayed attached through landing. Days later it was reactivated and ejected, landing about 4 m from the lander, but it returned no images. It did record and send other data through the lander.
"EagleCam was powered off and remained attached to ''Odysseus'' through landing"
— Wikipedia article "IM-1", revision 1376835835 of 2026-09-26T14:47:54Z"the EagleCam was reactivated and ejected safely, landing about four meters away from the lunar lander"
— Embry‑Riddle Celebrates Historic Moon Landing"it still recorded and transmitted other types of data to Intuitive Machines and the Space Technologies Lab via the IM-1 lander"
— Wikipedia article "IM-1", revision 1376835835 of 2026-09-26T14:47:54Z
FO's role¶
Grade: none. No FO flight of EagleCam. Its New Shepard test in December 2023 shared a flight with FO-supported payloads, but FO does not list EagleCam among them. Embry-Riddle has FO projects by other teams on other technology (an ADS-B transmitter, TechPort 12235, 91403 and 106592, PI Richard Stansbury). Following the study's rule, a link by university only, with other PIs, is not graded.
"Initial Flight Test of a Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) Transmitter Prototype"
— TechPort project 12235, title (FO, Embry-Riddle, 2012-2015)"Links by organization only (a NASA center or university, other PIs) are not flagged."
— earlier finding of this study (not a public source)
Who built it¶
"said Dr. Troy Henderson, director of Embry"
— Embry‑Riddle Celebrates Historic Moon Landing, Dr. Troy Henderson, Space Technologies Laboratory"where EagleCam was dreamed up and built from scratch"
— Embry‑Riddle Celebrates Historic Moon Landing"created by the [[Swamp Works]] facility at [[Kennedy Space Center]]"
— Wikipedia article "IM-1", revision 1376835835 of 2026-09-26T14:47:54Z, Wikipedia, revision 1376835835
Moon Base need¶
"Use WiFi on the moon for data transmission."
— Embry‑Riddle Celebrates Historic Moon Landing"Develop mitigation systems and strategies to limit system degradation from lunar dust"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: Moon Base technology and knowledge challenges, Headline challenge 2, technology challenge
Open questions¶
- Did the test cameras fly on Blue Origin in early 2021, as planned in October 2020? Not in public sources.
- Who arranged and paid for the NS-24 prototype flight, and what did it show? Not in the saved sources (a Spaceflight Now report cited by Wikipedia could not be saved).
- EagleCam's cost and funding: not in public sources.
- Is the EagleCam dust shield related to the Electrodynamic Dust Shield on Blue Ghost Mission 1 (FO-related through MISSE-11)? The sources do not say.