Moon lander pictured on its side with snapped leg

The first clear images of the Odysseus robot on the surface of the Moon have just been released.

They show the American mission lying to one side, having broken a leg on touchdown before then falling over.

The spacecraft continued to work afterwards, however, sending back data about the lunar environment.

Odysseus made history last Thursday by becoming the first ever privately built vehicle to complete a soft landing on the Moon.

And despite the awkward orientation it eventually adopted, the robot should be celebrated, said US space agency administrator Bill Nelson.

Nasa had contracted the operating company, Houston-based Intuitive Machines, to carry six scientific instruments on board the lander.

"Odysseus is a success," the agency chief told reporters. "We are in the sixth day of what was planned as an eight-day mission, and we're still receiving data from those instruments."

The Intuitive Machines mission is part of Nasa's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme, in which the agency is paying various private American companies for cargo services to the Moon.

Nasa regards the CLPS approach as a more economical way of getting its science done, while at the same time seeding what it hopes will become a thriving lunar economy.

Intuitive Machines has two further missions in prospect for 2024. The next will see a robot drill into the surface.