The next phase of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services moon exploration program began on Jan. 15, with the launch of the Firefly Blue Ghost. It continued with the launch of the Intuitive Machines Athena lander on Feb. 26. Since the Blue Ghost also had the iSpace Resilience lander as a rideshare, at one point three spacecraft were headed for the lunar surface.

Firefly’s Blue Ghost landed in the Mare Crisium, northeast of the Sea of Tranquility, in what was described as a clockwork landing with no anomalies in the early morning hours of March 2. Firefly engineers immediately began activating the 10 payloads on the lander for a 14-day campaign of scientific discovery.

Intuitive Machines IM-2 Athena touched down on the moon's Mons Mouton region of the lunar south pole on Thursday. Its main mission will be to hunt for lunar ice, a crucial resource needed by future moon explorers.

Unfortunately, as with the first Intuitive Machines landing attempt, the Athena proved to be an incomplete success.

"We don't believe we're in the correct attitude" on the lunar surface, Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said. Later it was found that Athena had landed in a nearby crater and tipped over.

As........

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