NASA released a photo showing Intuitive Machines' Athena lander descending toward the moon’s surface on Thursday, March 6, 2025. AP Photo
A private lunar lander stopped working after landing on its side in a crater near the moon’s south pole. Officials confirmed the mission’s failure on Friday, just a day after the Texas-based company behind the lander, Intuitive Machines, made the landing attempt.
The lander, named Athena, launched last week but missed its target by over 800 feet (250 meters). It ended up in a cold, shadowy crater where it was unable to function properly. Before losing power, Athena managed to send back images of its location and activate some experiments.
NASA and other customers had loaded the lander with expensive scientific equipment, including an ice drill, a drone, and two small rovers. These tools were meant to explore the area ahead of planned astronaut missions in the coming years. However, with Athena on its side, the rovers couldn’t move, and most of the experiments were cut short.
The lander’s solar panels faced the wrong direction, making it unlikely that its batteries could recharge. The extreme cold in the crater also made survival difficult. In a statement, the company said, “The mission has concluded, and teams are continuing to assess the data collected.”
One of the stranded rovers, built by a Colorado-based company, remained intact but never had a chance to roll off the lander. Had the landing gone as planned, it could have explored the moon’s surface.
This was Intuitive Machines’ second attempt at landing on the moon. Their first mission also ended with a sideways landing, but the lander continued working for a longer time. Despite the failure, the company’s first lander made history by returning the U.S. to the moon after more than 50 years.
Earlier this week, another Texas-based company, Firefly Aerospace, successfully landed its own spacecraft on the moon. Under NASA’s lunar delivery program, Firefly placed its Blue Ghost lander in the moon’s northern region. The company reported that most of its NASA experiments had already achieved their goals and expected the lander to function for another week before losing solar power.
The moon’s south pole is a challenging location for landings due to difficult terrain, limited sunlight, and communication issues. Athena’s landing site was just 100 miles (160 km) from the south pole. NASA hopes to send astronauts to this region by 2027. Scientists believe that the craters there contain frozen water, which could be used for drinking water or even rocket fuel.
Intuitive Machines still has contracts with NASA for two more moon landing missions. The company plans to study what went wrong with Athena before moving forward. Just after landing, controllers quickly shut down parts of the lander to save power while trying to recover useful data.
Both of Intuitive Machines’ landings faced last-minute issues with their navigation systems. Athena was supposed to release a drone named Grace, which would hop across the moon’s surface and search for frozen water. The two small rovers, one from the U.S. and the other from Japan, were also meant to explore the area.
NASA’s ice drill managed to start working before Athena lost power, but because the lander was on its side, it couldn’t drill into the surface as planned. However, scientists confirmed that the drill was operational and another instrument collected some data before the mission ended.
NASA had paid $62 million to Intuitive Machines to transport three experiments to the moon.
