The second moon landing attempt by Houston-based Intuitive Machines has ended just as the company’s first did — with the lander dead after tipping over on its side inside a lunar crater, a new image confirms.
According to NASA, which hired Intuitive Machines to carry several scientific instruments to the moon as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, the lander prematurely suspended operations on Friday (March 7) when its battery depleted just 12 hours after the fumbled landing.
Before shutting down, the lander’s various instruments managed to transmit about 250 megabytes of data to NASA, including a telltale photo showing two of the spacecraft’s legs jutting upward, a half-lit Earth hovering majestically in the distance.
Related: Blue Ghost spacecraft captures rare, stunning views of Earth eclipsing the moon
It is not yet clear what went wrong for the IM-2 mission and the Athena lander, which officially touched down on the moon’s near-side at 12:30 p.m. EST on Thursday (March 6) and ended operations at 1:15 a.m. on Friday. NASA noted that the spacecraft also landed more than 1,300 feet (400 meters) from its intended landing site near the moon’s south pole.
“While we’re disappointed in the outcome of the IM-2 mission, we remain committed to supporting our commercial vendors as they navigate the very difficult task of landing and operating on the Moon,” Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for Exploration in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.
The past (and future) of private moon landings
This was the second lunar landing attempt for Intuitive Machines in as many years. The company completed its first landing on Feb. 22, 2024, when the Odysseus spacecraft touched down, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to reach the lunar surface since Apollo 17 in 1972.
However, during its descent Odysseus’ landing lasers malfunctioned, causing the spacecraft to temporarily lose the guidance needed to estimate landing distances. One of Odysseus’ legs snapped on the lunar surface, and the spacecraft fell on its side, limiting some of its functions. The spacecraft fell silent one week after landing, shutting down power before the frigid lunar night set in.
NASA has committed to working with Intuitive Machines on two more lunar deliveries, with its IM-3 mission scheduled for 2026, and IM-4 slotted for 2027.
The landing attempt comes just days after a successful touchdown by rival space company, Firefly Aerospace. The company’s Blue Ghost spacecraft aced its landing on Sunday (March 2), sending home an image of the lander’s perfectly-upright shadow cast onto the lunar surface. Blue Ghost, also part of the CLPS initiative, has 10 NASA instruments in its lander that will operate on the moon’s surface for about 14 Earth days (one lunar day).
