U.S. spacecraft encounters problem during its ambitious moon landing

2025-04-27 12:10:46admin

A 15-foot-tall spacecraft had an imperfect landing on the moon.

The NASA-funded mission to the moon, operated by the Houston space exploration company Intuitive Machines, touched down on March 6, but engineers are still uncertain about its orientation and overall condition. Is the spacecraft, for example, lying on its side?

Though the robotic craft, called Athena, performed excellently on its flight to and around the moon, this landing mishap comes a year after Intuitive Machines' first government-supported attempt resulted in the spacecraft landing hard, breaking a leg, and settling on its side.

"I think we can agree, particularly today, that landing on the moon is extremely hard," Nicola Fox, who leads NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said at an agency news conference on March 6.

SEE ALSO: Why landing a spaceship on the moon is still so challenging

Athena fired thrusters to brake at speeds of some 4,000 mph during its final descent. Intuitive Machines is confident the craft landed on the towering Mons Mouton, a lunar mountain near the moon's south pole rising 20,000 feet above the surrounding terrain. It's unclear, however, how far Athena may be from its intended landing site within Mons Mouton. This southern region is rich in water ice, and is relatively close to where NASA intends to bring astronauts in mid-2027.

Athena is currently charging on the lunar surface — meaning some sunlight is reaching the craft. It's communicating with Intuitive Machine's engineers, too. But much of the mission now remains in limbo.

"We think we've been very successful to this point," Steve Altemus, the chief executive officer of Intuitive Machines, said at the press conference. "But we don't think we're in the correct attitude on the surface of the moon again."

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

An artist's conception of an Intuitive Machines' spacecraft landing upright on the moon. Credit: Intuitive Machines

Crucially, the lander is equipped with a NASA drill, called PRIME-1, to investigate south pole resources in anticipation of astronauts returning to the moon. The instrument is designed to drill some three feet below the lunar surface, and another instrument, called a spectrometer, looks for water and other materials. It remains unknown if the drill will be able to function in a non-optimal orientation, but NASA and Intuitive Machines will discern that capability in the coming weeks.

The drill is important. Harvesting water ice, the space agency has emphasized, is crucial for making drinkable water, oxygen, and fuel for rockets. Over eons, comets and meteors striking the moon could have transported bounties of water to the moon's surface. Other sources could be water vapor that naturally seeped out of the lunar underground, or chemical reactions between oxygen in the lunar soil and the relentless solar wind.

But without finding and mining this ice, the U.S. cannot establish a permanent presence on the moon, a pivotal part of its Artemis program.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

In a sign of burgeoning commerical spaceexploration in the 21st century, Athena (however impaired) joins the Blue Ghost lander, built by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, which successfully touched downon the moon's near side on March 2. That craft is also part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which consists of robotic technical and science endeavors that support looming crewed lunar missions.