Mission Over For Private US Lander After Wonky Landing

Muhammad Irfan Published March 07, 2025 | 11:40 PM

Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Mar, 2025) Intuitive Machines' second Moon mission ended in disappointment Friday after its spacecraft tipped over and was left unable to recharge its solar-powered batteries, mirroring the US company's first attempt last year.

It marked a premature conclusion to a mission that had sparked excitement in the space community, thanks to its cutting-edge payloads, including a futuristic hopping drone, multiple rovers, an ice drill, and a 4g network test.

Houston-based Intuitive Machines (IM) had hoped to make history with Athena, a hexagonal lander roughly the height of a giraffe, designed to touch down on a spot called the Mons Mouton plateau, closer to the lunar south pole than any mission before.

But after traveling more than a million kilometers through space, the spacecraft came to rest inside a crater, 250 meters from its intended target, face down on the lunar surface.

A photo released by the company showed Athena resting on an incline, with Earth visible between two of its splayed landing legs -- a similar fate to IM's prior landing with its Odysseus spacecraft in February 2024.