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Intuitive Machine’s lunar landing goes sideways again
The Verge ^ | March 07, 2025 | Jess Weatherbed

Posted on 03/07/2025 6:48:21 AM PST by Red Badger

The second lunar lander made by Intuitive Machines has touched down on the Moon, but like the private aerospace company’s first spacecraft, it may not be upright. The Athena vehicle for Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission landed yesterday just 100 miles from the lunar south pole, but there’s uncertainty around its orientation which may impact the mission’s duration.

“We don’t believe we’re in the correct attitude on the surface of the Moon yet again,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said during the post-landing news conference.“We’re going to get a picture from the lunar reconnaissance orbital camera from above and we’ll confirm that over the coming days.”

Data from Athena’s Inertial Measurement Unit indicates that “we’re oriented somewhat on our side,” according to Altemus. Odysseus, a near-identical Intuitive Machines lander that became the first privately owned spacecraft to reach the Moon’s surface last year, shared a similar fate when it toppled over during its own landing. Athena touched down just a few days after the Blue Ghost private lander created by Firefly Aerospace, which landed “in an upright, stable configuration” on March 2nd.

The IM-2 mission is part of Intuitive Machines’ partnership with NASA to help return future crewed missions to the Moon. Athena was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on February 26th, and carries 11 payloads and scientific instruments designed to find evidence of water on the lunar surface.

The Athena lander is charging on the surface according to Altemus and is communicating with the mission ground network team on Earth, but performance is sub-optimal, which may cut Athena’s ten-day lifespan short. “We have done some power conservation steps as prudent measures to see how long and what objectives we can accomplish in the mission going forward,” said Altemus. “It will be off-nominal, because we’re not getting everything that we had asked for in terms of power generation, communications.”

Once the orientation of the lander is confirmed, the IM-2 team can then establish how many of Athena’s payloads and scientific instruments are fully operational — including a drill designed to search for ice, and a hopping drone vehicle named Grace that aims to explore a permanently shadowed crater for the first time.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Computers/Internet; History; Travel
KEYWORDS: astronomy; athena; blueghost; ccp; china; fireflyaerospace; intuitivemachines; moon; odysseus; sabotage; spaceexploration; stevealtemus; themoon
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To: Robert DeLong

Maybe it’s not the probe. Maybe the moon flipped on its side.


221 posted on 03/07/2025 11:48:06 AM PST by Lazamataz (The BEST birthday present I ever got WAS DONALD TRUMP WINNING IN 2024!!!)
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To: Robert DeLong

Maybe it’s not the probe. Maybe the moon flipped on its side.


222 posted on 03/07/2025 11:48:19 AM PST by Lazamataz (The BEST birthday present I ever got WAS DONALD TRUMP WINNING IN 2024!!!)
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To: Robert DeLong

Maybe it’s not the probe. Maybe the moon flipped on its side.


223 posted on 03/07/2025 11:48:21 AM PST by Lazamataz (The BEST birthday present I ever got WAS DONALD TRUMP WINNING IN 2024!!!)
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To: Robert DeLong

Maybe it’s not the probe. Maybe the moon flipped on its side.


224 posted on 03/07/2025 11:48:23 AM PST by Lazamataz (The BEST birthday present I ever got WAS DONALD TRUMP WINNING IN 2024!!!)
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To: Robert DeLong

Maybe it’s not the probe. Maybe the moon flipped on its side.


225 posted on 03/07/2025 11:48:25 AM PST by Lazamataz (The BEST birthday present I ever got WAS DONALD TRUMP WINNING IN 2024!!!)
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To: Red Badger

Great point!


226 posted on 03/07/2025 11:50:55 AM PST by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: ridesthemiles

Camera on the top of the lander...............


227 posted on 03/07/2025 11:51:32 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Robert DeLong

156 identical posts- is that a record?-DON’T ANSWER THAT…😮


228 posted on 03/07/2025 12:01:07 PM PST by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: Robert DeLong

I was gonna try it but didn’t at the last moment….


229 posted on 03/07/2025 12:02:18 PM PST by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: usurper

Apollo 12 astronauts- they landed a couple hundred yards from Surveyor.


230 posted on 03/07/2025 12:03:34 PM PST by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: Lazamataz

Oh no….


231 posted on 03/07/2025 12:06:11 PM PST by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

bttt


232 posted on 03/07/2025 12:07:14 PM PST by linMcHlp
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To: PIF

yes china is also great at killing millions of people with engineered bat viruses


233 posted on 03/07/2025 12:34:27 PM PST by Strict9
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To: Robert DeLong

must be Chinese hackers looking for secrets on our computers.


234 posted on 03/07/2025 1:37:55 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: telescope115
Apollo 12 astronauts- they landed a couple hundred yards from Surveyor.

Cool, thanks I did not know that.

235 posted on 03/07/2025 2:09:59 PM PST by usurper (AI was born with a birth defect.)
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