A private spacecraft just tried to land on the moon, but the outcome is not yet clear
For the second time in less than a week, a privately built U.S. spacecraft has attempted to land on the moon. But it is not yet clear whether the maneuver was a success.
Mission controllers are awaiting confirmation that a robotic lander, developed by the Texas-based company Intuitive Machines, is in good health and right side up on the lunar surface.
Dubbed Athena, the roughly dishwasher-sized spacecraft launched Feb. 26 and spent the past week journeying to the moon. It was scheduled to touch down Thursday around 12:31 p.m. ET. Flight controllers with Intuitive Machines were able to send and receive data from the spacecraft after its expected landing, and a livestream of the event showed mission managers powering down the vehicle’s engine and shifting to post-landing operations.
However, they were waiting for word on the lander’s “configuration,” which might mean that it is not upright on its six legs.
More information is expected at a news briefing Thursday at 4 p.m. ET.
A different robotic lander — built by Firefly Aerospace, which is also based in Texas — already touched down safely on the moon. The spacecraft arrived on the lunar surface Sunday, in a sprawling, 350-mile-wide basin on the near side of the moon (the side that always faces Earth).
Athena, meanwhile, had aimed to touch down at a site in the moon’s south polar region, then spend a week looking for the possible presence of water ice below the lunar surface.
Both the Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace missions are part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which the agency set up to support the development of moon landers by private-sector companies. More than a dozen U.S. companies are taking part in the initiative, which is a key part of NASA’s broader goal of returning astronauts to the moon.
NASA eventually plans to hire at least some of the companies to deliver science experiments, technology and other cargo to the moon.
The Athena landing was the second moonshot for Intuitive Machines. The company made history in February 2024 by becoming the first to land a commercially built spacecraft on the moon. However, that lander, called Odysseus, wound up tipping over on its side after the landing.
The flight was still seen as a success, and it marked the first time an American spacecraft had touched down on the moon in more than 50 years — since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Both Intuitive Machines missions have targeted the moon’s south polar area. Odysseus landed near a crater called Malapert A, close to the lunar south pole, and Athena was aiming for a plateau on a giant, flat-topped mountain called Mons Mouton.
Scientists think water ice may be relatively abundant at the lunar south pole. Water is considered a critical resource for future crewed missions to the moon, particularly for potential long-term stays there.
Athena carried several rovers with it to the moon, including a suitcase-sized vehicle built by the Colorado-based company Lunar Outpost, named MAPP (short for Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform). The rover was designed to roam around the landing site and capture 3D images of the terrain.
Additionally, a thumb-sized rover known as “AstroAnt,” developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was expected to wheel around on the roof of the MAPP rover to assess the vehicle’s health and take periodic temperature readings.
Furthermore, mission controllers planned to release a drone, dubbed Grace, to make a series of hops around Athena’s landing site. The robot was expected to cover around 650 feet in four hops and could explore a nearby crater to scan for traces of hydrogen and deposits of ice, according to Intuitive Machines.
The plan for Athena on the lunar surface also called for it to test a 4G communications system developed by Nokia. Company officials have said that such a network could be used to relay communications, telemetry or other data between different spacecraft on the moon.
Regardless of the outcome of Athena’s landing, moonmania won’t end this week: This summer, a lander and tiny rover developed by a Japanese company called ispace will attempt to land on the moon, near the center of a vast basin close to the moon’s north pole called Mare Frigoris.
