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
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
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
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
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.