Intuitive Machines’ Athena Lander Lands on the Moon, But How Exactly Is a Mystery

The $62.5 million IM-2 mission launched on February 26 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After 4.5 days of flight, the Athena landing module entered lunar orbit. Landing on the moon’s surface was scheduled for March 6 at 20:32 Moscow time. However, at 20:35, information appeared about the module’s engine stopping, but there was no official confirmation of a soft landing.

Image source: Intuitive Machines

After the dramatic, almost cinematic descent of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost, the landing of Intuitive Machines’ Athena raised questions. There was no live video of the descent, partly because the craft had gone into radio silence. But even after communications were restored, screens continued to show a crude simulation, and Mission Control staff appeared to have limited ability to assess what was happening in real time.

The landing module moved along a complex trajectory: at high speed, it was moving almost parallel to the surface of the Moon, then it began braking and moved into a vertical position. At the final stage, the speed was supposed to decrease to 1 m/s. The last 9 meters of the descent, the device passed without orientation using external cameras, relying only on onboard instruments.

At 20:35, confirmation was received that the engines had shut down, but no signal was received about the ground contact. It was not immediately possible to determine whether the landing was soft, and the live broadcast was interrupted until the circumstances were clarified. The company promised to reveal the details at a press conference, but at the time of publication of this news, its time had not been announced.

A year ago, Intuitive Machines’ first lander, Odyssey, reached the lunar surface but tipped over during landing. It is not yet known what position Athena ended up in. We can only hope that landing on its side is a bug and not a feature of the company’s landers.