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.
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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.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
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.