A privately built spacecraft from the company Intuitive Machines did not stick its landing on the moon Thursday, winding up on its side about 250 meters from its intended location.
It was the second time in less than a week that a private spacecraft has reached the lunar surface, but unlike the first landing — in which a robotic lander built by the company Firefly Aerospace touched down successfully — the outcome of Thursday's landing put an end to Intuitive Machines' mission.
The batteries that powered the lander, dubbed Athena, were depleted, the company said in a statement Friday: "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 mission has concluded."
The roughly dishwasher-size spacecraft was aiming for a plateau on a giant, flat-topped mountain called Mons Mouton, in the moon’s south polar region. Instead, Intuitive Machines said, it wound up inside a nearby crater.
Athena launched Feb. 26, with the goal of spending about a week on the moon looking for the possible presence of water ice below the surface. 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.
This was the second moonshot for Intuitive Machines, which made history in February 2024 by becoming the first company to land a commercially built spacecraft on the moon. However, that lander, called Odysseus, similarly wound up tipping over on its side after landing.
Nonetheless, that flight was considered a success; 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.
Odysseus also targeted the moon’s south polar region, landing near a crater called Malapert A, close to the lunar south pole.
Athena's landing this time, Intuitive Machines said, "was the southernmost lunar landing and surface operations ever achieved."
During a news briefing Thursday, Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said flight controllers had been able to send and receive data from the spacecraft after it landed. Mission controllers were also able to power Athena’s onboard experiments on and off.
Both the Intuitive Machines and the 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.
“I think we can all agree, particularly today, that landing on the moon is extremely hard,” Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said at the briefing Thursday.
The premature end to Intuitive Machines' mission means planned experiments won't be completed as intended. That includes the release of two rovers and a drone that the Athena lander carried with it to the moon.
The larger of the two rovers, a suitcase-size vehicle built by the company Lunar Outpost, was designed to roam around the landing site and capture 3D images of the terrain. In addition, a thumb-sized rover developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was expected to wheel around on the roof of the bigger rover to assess its health and take temperature readings.
The drone, meanwhile, was to make a series of hops around Athena’s landing site, covering around 650 feet.
In addition, the plan for Athena called for it to test a 4G communications system developed by Nokia, which company officials had said could be used to relay communications or data between different spacecraft on the moon.
Moon mania isn't over, however: This summer, a lander and tiny rover developed by a Japanese company called ispace will try to land on the moon, near the center of a vast basin close to the moon’s north pole called Mare Frigoris.
