Intuitive Machines Attempts Second Lunar Landing, Aiming for Upright Success

After achieving a groundbreaking milestone as the first private company to successfully land on the Moon last year, Intuitive Machines is poised for a second lunar landing attempt near the Moon’s south pole. This time, the primary objective is a more graceful and upright arrival.

The company is targeting a landing opportunity on Thursday at 12:32 p.m. ET. The Nova-C lunar lander, christened Athena, is slated to touch down in Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau situated near the Moon’s south pole. Athena was meticulously crafted by Intuitive Machines as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, a collaborative initiative designed to foster commercial participation in lunar exploration.

The highly anticipated landing attempt will be streamed live on Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission page and on NASA+. The live stream is scheduled to commence at 11:30 a.m. ET, providing a real-time glimpse into this significant endeavor.

Athena embarked on its journey on February 26, secured atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The lander is laden with an array of NASA science instruments and tools, each meticulously designed to search for valuable resources on the Moon and pave the way for a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface.

Among the suite of NASA instruments is the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1, or PRIME-1. This comprehensive instrument suite comprises a drill and mass spectrometer, specifically designed to explore the Moon’s subsurface for traces of water ice, a critical resource for future lunar inhabitants.

In addition to PRIME-1, Athena is also carrying Grace, a Micro-Nova robot. This innovative robot is engineered to hop in and out of nearby craters on the Moon, providing unprecedented access to previously unexplored regions and expanding our understanding of the lunar environment.

Athena is also tasked with delivering the Nokia Lunar Surface Communications System, a cutting-edge cellular communication network. This network is designed to establish seamless connectivity between the lander, a Lunar Outpost rover, and the Micro Nova hopper, facilitating efficient communication and data transfer across the lunar surface.

The IM-2 mission successfully entered lunar orbit on Monday, initiating a two-hour orbital cycle around the Moon. This orbital maneuver allowed the mission team to patiently await the sunrise at the designated landing site, ensuring optimal conditions for Athena’s surface operations and maximizing solar energy capture.

The pivotal moment in the landing sequence involves a descent trajectory burn. During this critical phase, Athena will autonomously adjust its trajectory, carefully lowering its orbit and placing itself on a precise flight path toward the predetermined landing site. From this point forward, the robot will operate independently, navigating its descent and executing the landing entirely autonomously.

Intuitive Machines is no stranger to lunar landing attempts. The company launched its first lunar lander, Odysseus, in February 2024. Both landers derive their names from Greek mythology, with Athena serving as Odysseus’ divine patron. Odysseus successfully reached the lunar surface, but its landing was marred by an unexpected mishap. One of the lander’s legs may have encountered an obstacle during its descent, causing it to tip over on its side and come to rest on a rock.

Despite the imperfect landing, Intuitive Machines made history, marking a significant milestone in commercial space exploration and ushering in a new era of commercial deliveries to the Moon.

Another Texas-based startup, Firefly Aerospace, recently achieved a successful lunar landing on its first attempt. Firefly’s Blue Ghost mission, aptly named "Ghost Riders in the Sky," which is also part of NASA’s CLPS program, executed a soft touchdown on the Moon on Sunday at 3:34 a.m. ET.

Adding to the surge of lunar activity, the Japanese company ispace’s Resilience lander also embarked on a lunar mission, sharing the same SpaceX rocket that propelled Blue Ghost to the Moon. Resilience performed a flyby of the Moon on February 15 and is expected to attempt a landing in April.

This surge of commercial spaceflight activity serves as a prelude to NASA’s ambitious Artemis missions, which aim to send a crewed mission to the Moon beginning next year. The lunar surface is rapidly becoming a hub of activity, and with the prospect of a semi-permanent human presence on the horizon, Intuitive Machines’ pioneering work marks just the beginning of a transformative era in lunar exploration. The success of Athena in achieving an upright landing would not only validate the advancements in landing technology but also solidify the company’s role in shaping the future of lunar missions and scientific discoveries. The data collected and the technologies deployed during this mission will be invaluable in preparing for the more complex and demanding Artemis missions that aim to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon.

The ability to reliably land payloads and deploy scientific instruments on the lunar surface opens up a wealth of opportunities for research, resource utilization, and the establishment of a permanent lunar base. The competition and collaboration between private companies in this burgeoning space sector are driving innovation and accelerating the pace of lunar exploration, bringing us closer to a future where the Moon is not just a distant celestial body but an accessible frontier for scientific discovery and human habitation.