Oops, we flipped it over again: the sideways US Lander mission

The intuitive machine’s second moon mission ended in disappointment Friday after a US company confirmed that the spacecraft had been turned over and could not charge the solar-powered battery.

With futuristic hopping drones, multiple rovers, ice drills and 4G network testing, we marked premature conclusions on missions that have sparked excitement in the space community.

The Houston-based intuitive machine (IM) wanted to make history with Athena, the nearly tall giraffe, designed to land at a place called the Mons Mouton Plateau, closer to the Antarctic of the Moon than its previous missions.

However, after exploding a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket last week and travelling over a million kilometres of space, the spacecraft stumbled over the final hurdle on Thursday and descended at an awkward angle.

I confirmed on Friday that it first fell on my face into a crater at least 250 meters (820 feet) from the intended landing site.

Photos released by the company show the Athena tilted, with the Earth visible between two scattered landing legs. This is a destiny similar to the previous landing of IM on the Odysseus spacecraft in February 2024.

The wrong instrument

“Due to the direction of the sun, the direction of the solar panels, and the extreme cold of the crater, the intuitive machinery does not expect Athena to be charged,” the company added in a statement.

Nikki Fox of NASA, a science assistant administrator, threw a positive note.

“Each success and set-off is an opportunity to learn and grow and use this lesson to promote science, exploration and commercial development efforts as we prepare for human exploration on Mars.”

NASA was able to power the ice drill and move around, but it could not be used for its intended purpose.

Science research and technology demonstrations were originally expected to last around ten days, so they hoped to win the lunar eclipse from a Monday perspective on March 14th.

IM executives on Thursday suggested that Odysseus came in too quickly and stepped into the surface, and like the previous mission when he fell, Athena’s laser altimeter issues contributed to a bad landing.

Specifically, terrain relative navigation lasers designed to provide altitude and speed measurements returned “noisy” data that was completely unreliable, while hazard relative navigation sensors only sent intermittent signals.

Athena, like Odysseus, stands at 15.6 feet (4.8 meters) tall, with a long, elongated build that raises stability concerns.

However, CEO Steve Altemus argued that Lander’s weight distribution keeps the center of gravity low, and that the company is confident in its design.

Texas rivals succeed

In addition to the disappointment, the latest accident came just days after Texas rival Firefly Aerospace landed Blue Ghost Lander in its first attempt.

These missions are part of NASA’s $2.6 billion commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which seeks to leverage private industries to reduce costs and support Artemis.

Meanwhile, the two probes that were on the same SpaceX rocket as the IM equipment have also been lost, adding to the feeling of an unfortunate voyage.

NASA’s lunar pioneer probe is designed to map the moon’s water distribution, while Odin, a small private probe, aims to capture close-up photos of asteroids.

IM has been awarded two more month missions, but we will review data from IM-2 to better understand the impact on IM-3.

Of the four CLP missions attempted so far, only one lander managed an upright touchdown, two landed sideways, one unable to reach the moon completely.

©2025 AFP