Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander touches down softly; engineers are assessing spacecraft condition
Though Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander has apparently softly landed near the south pole of the Moon, there remains uncertainty about the spacecraft’s status. Engineers have contact with Athena, and are apparently shutting down the landing equipment in order to make Athena safe for surface operations.
Unlike the previous landing, the spacecraft is upright and responding fully as expected. It appears the main issue is the position of Athena relative to the horizon. This is important as it determines the best antenna’s to use to upload and download data to and from Earth.
A full update will be provided at a press conference scheduled for 4 pm (Eastern) today. I have embedded the live stream of that conference below.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Though Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander has apparently softly landed near the south pole of the Moon, there remains uncertainty about the spacecraft’s status. Engineers have contact with Athena, and are apparently shutting down the landing equipment in order to make Athena safe for surface operations.
Unlike the previous landing, the spacecraft is upright and responding fully as expected. It appears the main issue is the position of Athena relative to the horizon. This is important as it determines the best antenna’s to use to upload and download data to and from Earth.
A full update will be provided at a press conference scheduled for 4 pm (Eastern) today. I have embedded the live stream of that conference below.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Deja vu all over again, as Yogi would have put it: Yes, it happened again. Though maybe not for the same reasons.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03/06/science/moon-landing
Nicki Fox and Steve Altemus in full spin mode as the IM stock price obeys gravity rapidly, too.
On the upside, the Yaoki rover and MAPP seem to be sending back signals, so maybe they can salvage some science out of this.
Scott Manley quips: “15 minutes into this press conference and there’s zero information we didn’t already know. That’s kinda at odds with the claims of success.”
https://x.com/DJSnM/status/1897757881640140968
I have the sinking feeling that we’re going to be subjected to this spin mode every time a publicly held company has mission difficulties like this.
If Athena really is on its side, I can’t see how the PRIME-1 drill can be deployed. Maybe the MAPP rover and GRACE hopper can be deployed. A couple of the instruments don’t need deployment as such, though signal bandwidth could limit what they send back. They really have not told us anything about that, probably because they still do not know.
Richard M: I have put up a post based on the press conference.
It does appear that the lander’s design, with a relatively high center of gravity, might have contributed to the tilt or its falling over.
Comparing the design of the IM’s Athena to Firefly’s Blue Ghost it seems that the IM lander is very top heavy. Blue Ghost definitely has a lower center of gravity that helps with stability.
Twice now they have had a lander fall over. I really hope they think about creating a larger landing stance. The same issue may happen to SpaceX with their Lunar Starship. Just because you can balance to a landing doesn’t mean you can stay there.
Hi Bob,
Lots of speculation about the, uh, very vertical design of the Nova-C lander once again today. Interestingly, though, IM insists that appearances notwithstanding, this is not the case:
https://www.intuitivemachines.com/nova-c
I have been trying to find out just exactly WHERE the center of gravity is on the lander at that point, but I’m still looking.
I don’t know much about Nova-C other than what I just posted above, but I do know that most of the mass of the Starship upper stage is in the engine bay, and that is even more the case when the propellant is mostly used up. The center of gravity is supposed to be quite low on Starship when it lands.
Also, Starship’s raptors are throttleable. Nova-C is not.
That said, I think that the sooner a landing pad is built on the lunar surface (along with homing radars/lidars) wherever it is they plan to make the base, the better. But there are a number of good reasons to do that.