Less than a day after Intuitive Machines landed on the Moon, the company declared an early end to its mission after its Athena spacecraft would up lying sideways on the lunar surface.
Athena touched down on the Moon on Thursday around 12:30 p.m. ET. Its landing was less than ideal, however, as the lander ended up 250 meters away from its targeted landing site in Mons Mouton, located in the southern pole region of the Moon. Images downlinked from the mission confirmed that Athena was on its side inside a crater and its batteries had died.
“With the direction of the sun, the orientation of the solar panels, and extreme cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to recharge,” the company wrote in an update on Friday. “The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission.”
This is the second time a lander by Intuitive Machines toppled sideways and represents a blow to the company’s goal of launching payloads to the Moon on a regular basis.
Athena launched on February 26 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The lander was packed with NASA science tools and instruments, including a Micro-Nova robot named Grace, which is designed to hop in and out of nearby craters on the Moon.
The lander entered lunar orbit on Monday before attempting to touch down on the surface. Following a nail-biting descent, Intuitive Machines was working to figure out the lander’s orientation on the Moon. “We don’t believe we’re in the correct attitude on the surface of the Moon yet again,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said during a press briefing on Thursday. “I don’t have all the data yet to say exactly what the attitude of the vehicle is.”
At the time, Altemus was still hopeful the mission could operate in some capacity on the surface of the Moon. “We will then work closely with NASA science and technology groups to identify science objectives that are the highest priority, and then we’ll figure out what the mission will look like,” he said on Thursday. But it now seems all hope is lost for Athena.
Intuitive Machines has been here before. The company launched its first lunar lander, named Odysseus, in February 2024. Odysseus managed to reach the lunar surface, but its landing wasn’t so smooth either. One of the lander’s legs may have gotten caught during its descent, causing it to tip over on its side and end up lying sideways on a rock. The mission did operate for seven days on the lunar surface, and the company became the first to land a private lander on the Moon.
This is an unfortunate ending for the follow-up mission, but Intuitive Machines is aims to launch its third mission later this year. Hopefully this time, the spacecraft will stick the landing upright.
Read the full article here
