Intuitive Machines, the company that pulled off the first-ever commercial moon landing this time last year with its Odysseus spacecraft, is gearing up for another shot at touching the lunar surface. Its second flight under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program is scheduled to take off no earlier than Wednesday February 26, launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The company is once again sending one of its Nova-C landers, this one nicknamed Athena. It’s expected to take about a week for Athena to travel to the moon, before it makes a landing attempt around March 6.
To the Moon! On Feb. 26, NASA science and tech are set to launch on @Int_Machines’ Nova-C lander, Athena. Watch live coverage of our second lunar mission with Intuitive Machines here on X. https://t.co/57Ug6tHsGd pic.twitter.com/MfsBQkh7Xn
— NASA (@NASA) February 21, 2025
Athena is carrying NASA instruments including a drill and mass spectrometer, which will be used to attempt “one of the first on-site demonstrations of resource use on the moon,” according to the space agency. These tools will measure volatiles in the soil at the landing site in the lunar South Pole. The mission also offers Intuitive Machines another chance at landing its spacecraft with all six feet on the ground. Odysseus, though successful in touching down on the surface, toppled over and ended up lying on its side.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/intuitive-machines-is-expected-to-launch-its-second-lunar-lander-this-week-174703197.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/science/space/intuitive-machines-is-expected-to-launch-its-second-lunar-lander-this-week-174703197.html?src=rss
Login to add comment
Other posts in this group
After a couple years of having its open-source Llama AI model be just a part of its Connect conferences, Meta is breaking things out and hosting an entirely generative AI-focused developer conferen
Wholesome Direct, an annual showcase of cute and cozy games, is returning on Saturday, June 7 at 12PM ET / 9AM PT. This year's event will show off "a vibrant lineup of artistic, uplifting, and emot
The extraction-shooter genre is getting a little more crowded and a lot more stylish with the announcement of Mycopunk, a four-player, first-person romp from indie studio Pigeons at Play a
A group of researchers covertly ran a months-long "unauthorized" experiment in one of Reddit’s most popular communities using AI-generated comments to test the persuasiveness of large language mode
Top executives from Wargaming and Lesta Games, the joint developers of World of Tanks, could have their stakes in their respective companies seized by the Russian government, according to
