Less than a day after Intuitive Machines landed on the moon, the company announced the early end of its mission after its Athena spacecraft came up on its side on the lunar surface.
Athena touched down on the moon on Thursday at around 12:30 p.m. ET. However, its landing was less than perfect, as the rover came within 820 feet of its planned landing site at Mons Mouton, near the moon’s south pole. Images transmitted from the mission confirmed that Athena was lying on its side inside a crater and its batteries were dead.
“Given the direction of the sun, the orientation of the solar arrays, and the extremely cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to be able to recharge,” the company wrote in an updated statement on Friday. “The mission has ended, and teams continue to evaluate data collected during the mission.”
This is the second time that Intuitive Machines’ lander has tipped over, and it’s a blow to the company’s goal of launching payloads to the moon on a regular basis.
Athena launched on Feb. 26 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The craft was loaded with NASA science instruments and instruments, including a Micro-Nova robot named Grace, which is designed to descend and land in nearby craters on the moon.
The lander entered lunar orbit on Monday and attempted to land on the moon’s surface. After the strenuous descent, Intuitive Machines has been working to figure out the lander’s orientation on the moon. “We’re not sure yet that we’re in the right position on the lunar surface,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said during a press briefing Thursday. “I don’t have all the data yet to say exactly where it’s at.”
At the time, Altemus still hoped the mission would be able to operate on the lunar surface. “Then we’ll work closely with NASA’s science and engineering teams to identify the science objectives that are the highest priority, and then we’ll figure out what the mission will look like,” he said Thursday. But now it seems all hope for Athena is lost.
Intuitive Machines has been here before. In February 2024, the company launched its first lunar lander, called Odyssey. Odyssey managed to reach the lunar surface, but its landing wasn’t so smooth either. One of the craft’s legs may have snagged during descent, causing it to tip over onto its side and land on a rock on its side. The mission operated on the lunar surface for seven days, making it the first private lander to land on the moon.
It’s a sad ending for the next mission, but Intuitive Machines plans to launch its third mission later this year. Let’s hope that this time the spacecraft will land vertically.
