After a day of uncertainty following a harrowing moon landing attempt, the company Intuitive Machines sealed the fate of its latest lunar probe Athena. The spacecraft, which attempted a historic landing in rugged terrain near the south pole of the moon on Thursday (March 6), had toppled on its side inside a frigid crater.
Intuitive Machines out of Texas is sending a second lunar lander, this time Athena, to the moon, where it will drill for water, ice and other gases.
If all goes according to plan, the Athena lander will touch down near the moon's south pole on or around March 6.
Intuitive Machines collected some data for NASA before calling an early end of mission at 12:15 a.m. CST Friday.
Intuitive Machines launches its second moon lander, which will use NASA and commercially developed tools to search for ice in the moon's crust.
St. Petersburg-based space startup Lonestar Data Holdings says its lunar data center is the only surviving payload after a private lunar lander came down sideways on the moon.
Intuitive Machines designed and will operate the Athena lunar lander on the company's second voyage to the moon's south pole to hunt for water.