SpaceX launches Intuitive Machines’ Athena lunar lander
The Moon’s South Pole with landers indicated.
Click for interactive map.
SpaceX today successfully launched the second lunar lander built by the startup Intuitive Machines, dubbed Athena, for a landing near the lunar south pole in about eight days, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The “X” on the map to the right indicates the landing location, on a mountain called Mons Mouton, about 100 miles from the south pole. This will be the closest landing to the pole by any lander. It is also the site that was originally selected for NASA’s now cancelled VIPER rover mission.
The launch also included NASA Lunar Trailblazer lunar orbiter, designed to map the Moon’s surface for evidence of water, and Astroforge’s first interplanetary probe, dubbed Odin, which will attempt the first close fly-by of an asteroid by a privately built and own space probe. The asteroid, 2022 OB5, is thought to be made up largely of nickel-iron, which makes it a prime mining target.
The first stage completed its ninth mission, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
24 SpaceX (with another launch scheduled for later tonight)
8 China
2 Rocket Lab
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The Moon’s South Pole with landers indicated.
Click for interactive map.
SpaceX today successfully launched the second lunar lander built by the startup Intuitive Machines, dubbed Athena, for a landing near the lunar south pole in about eight days, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The “X” on the map to the right indicates the landing location, on a mountain called Mons Mouton, about 100 miles from the south pole. This will be the closest landing to the pole by any lander. It is also the site that was originally selected for NASA’s now cancelled VIPER rover mission.
The launch also included NASA Lunar Trailblazer lunar orbiter, designed to map the Moon’s surface for evidence of water, and Astroforge’s first interplanetary probe, dubbed Odin, which will attempt the first close fly-by of an asteroid by a privately built and own space probe. The asteroid, 2022 OB5, is thought to be made up largely of nickel-iron, which makes it a prime mining target.
The first stage completed its ninth mission, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
24 SpaceX (with another launch scheduled for later tonight)
8 China
2 Rocket Lab
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
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Nominal deployment of the IM-2 lander has been executed! Godspeed, Athena.
It also includes the Chimera orbital tug by the Argentinian company Epic Aerospace. This tug is tasked with taking a commercial 16U cubesat from TLI to GEO. If successful it will, I believe, be the highest performing tug on the market. I don’t think anyone has ever performed an orbital maneuver that big as a service.
Four really great payloads on this flight.
I’d never seen a launch with my own eyes from KSC before tonight. And then got to see TWO. Wow. Go SpaceX.
UPDATE:
https://twitter.com/Int_Machines/status/1895101633287053345
“After liftoff on February 26, Athena established a stable attitude, solar charging, and radio communications contact with our mission operations center in Houston. The lander is in excellent health, sending selfies, and preparing for a series of planned main engine firings to refine her trajectory ahead of lunar orbit insertion, planned on March 3. Intuitive Machines is targeting a lunar landing opportunity on March 6.”
[Great selfie shots at the link.]
A lot of milestones still to be achieved, but it seems to be off to a great start.
Just to clarify, it appears that Chimera can lift up to 4 tons to GEO. But Impulse Space’s Helios will be able to boost up to 5 tons to GEO.
The first flight of Helios is not expected until 2026, however.
Richard C. Moeur,
I agree. They really are impressive.
If you ever get to see one just after sunset, the expanding exhaust plume is impressive, too, as the rocket goes high enough to be lit by the Sun. I haven’t personally seen any of the Falcon maneuvering thrusters during flyback (again, lit by the Sun), but the videos look awe inspiring.
If you haven’t watched satellites pass overhead, that is another fun activity. This occurs after sunset, when the sky is dark enough, or early in the morning, if you get up early. The satellites travel about as fast as airplanes high in the sky, but they are white, not red and green. The tumbling satellites may wink in and out every few seconds, still looking different than airplanes.
Once it gets too late in the evening, the satellites enter the Earth’s shadow and you can no longer see them.