Private lunar lander Athena may have fallen over while touching down near the moon's south pole
Source: Associated Press
Private lunar lander may have fallen over while touching down near the moon’s south pole
By MARCIA DUNN
Updated 6:01 PM EST, March 6, 2025
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A privately owned lunar lander touched down on the moon with a drill, drone and rovers for NASA and other customers Thursday, but quickly ran into trouble and may have fallen over.
Intuitive Machines said it was uncertain whether its Athena lander was upright near the moon’s south pole — standing 15 feet (4.7 meters) tall — or lying sideways like its first spacecraft from a year ago. Controllers rushed to turn off some of the lander’s equipment to conserve power while trying to determine what went wrong.
It was the second moon landing this week by a Texas company under NASA’s commercial lunar delivery program. Sunday’s touchdown was a complete success.
Intuitive Machines’ newest Athena lander dropped out of lunar orbit as planned. The hourlong descent appeared to go well until the final approach when the laser navigation system began acting up. It took a while for Mission Control to confirm touchdown.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/moon-landing-nasa-intuitive-machines-athena-cf4a88baa6644fb381dbaea497001d51
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"Images downlinked from Athena on the lunar surface confirmed that Athena was on her side," the company said on its website.
"After landing, mission controllers were able to accelerate several program and payload milestones, including NASA's PRIME-1 (drill) suite, before the lander's batteries depleted," the statement continued. "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 and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission."
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In this case, NASA agreed to pay Intuitive Machines $62.5 million to deliver a drill and a mass spectrometer, known as Prime-1, to the moon. NASA's "tipping point" technology development program paid $15 million for Nokia cellular communications equipment and another $41 million to help finance an innovative rocket-powered "hopper" designed to jump into and out of a permanently shadowed crater in search of ice.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/athena-moon-lander-tips-over-intuitive-machines-mission/