One day after its Nova-C class lander touched down on the Moon, Houston-based Intuitive Machines announced that its mission has officially concluded.
Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, named Athena, is pictured on its side, lying on the Moon’s surface following touchdown on Thursday. Credit: Intuitive Machines
In a statement released Friday, the company confirmed that the lander, named Athena, came to rest inside a crater at Mons Mouton, near the lunar South Pole—approximately 250 meters (820 feet) from its intended landing site. However, the spacecraft ended up on its side, limiting its ability to generate power.
“With the direction of the Sun, the orientation of the solar panels, and extreme cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to recharge,” the company stated. “The mission has concluded, and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission.”
At a press conference on Thursday, Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus explained that conflicting data initially made it difficult to confirm the lander’s exact position. While the lander’s inertial measurement unit (IMU) suggested it had tipped over, Altemus emphasized the need for an image to verify its orientation.
“I would like to get a picture to know exactly where the antennas are pointed, where the engine bell is pointed, where the solar panels are, so that we can figure out a power profile,” he said.
Despite the challenging landing, mission controllers managed to complete several milestones, including the activation of NASA’s PRIME-1 suite, before Athena’s batteries were fully depleted.
NASA had significant financial stakes in the IM-2 mission. The agency paid $62.5 million to deliver the PRIME-1 suite to the Moon and awarded additional funding through its “Tipping Point” program—$14.1 million to Nokia for testing 4G/LTE technology on the lunar surface and $41.6 million to Intuitive Machines for developing the Micro Nova Hopper, a rocket-propelled mobility system.
As of Friday afternoon, NASA had not issued a statement regarding the mission’s outcome.
Mission Impact and Future Plans
The lander’s final orientation prevented the deployment of some key payloads. One of the IM-2 customers, Lunar Outpost, confirmed that its Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover was unable to deploy. However, the company noted that data indicated the rover survived the landing and would have been operational had it been released as planned.
“We look forward to our upcoming missions – including exploring Reiner Gamma (Lunar Voyage 2), returning to the South Pole (Lunar Voyage 3), and launching Australia’s first rover to the Moon (Lunar Voyage 4),” Lunar Outpost stated.
Other mission customers had not yet provided updates on the status of their payloads at the time of publication.
Additionally, due to Athena’s position, NASA’s TRIDENT drill was unable to collect lunar samples for analysis by the MSolo mass spectrometer.
Despite the challenges faced by IM-2, Intuitive Machines is already preparing for its next lunar mission. The company’s third mission under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program is expected to launch in late 2025 or early 2026.
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