Moon readies for first cell service amid America's latest private lunar launch
SpaceX launched Intuitive Machines’ second Moon mission and NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft on Wednesday at 7:17 p.m. ET. The Athena lander is packed with new science investigations, including the first lunar cell service technology.
Intuitive Machines lands Odysseus Moon lander on lunar South Pole
2024 VIDEO: Houston-based company Intuitive Machines said it successfully landed its Odysseus lander on the Moon. The touchdown marked the first private Moon landing and the first American mission in more than 50 years.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – Intuitive Machines, the Texas company that returned America to the Moon last year, aims to make a repeat appearance, this time delivering the first cell service to the lunar surface in addition to helping find resources.
With two separate private lunar missions on the way right now, Intuitive Machines became the third en route with the launch of its Nova-C lander, named Athena, to the Moon on Wednesday evening.
SpaceX and Intuitive Machines lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:17 p.m. ET.
Houston-based Intuitive Machines made history last year when its first Nova-C lander touched down on the Moon, marking the first U.S. landing since Apollo 17 in 1972 and the first private lunar arrival. NASA is among the customers with payloads on Athena but is also launching a ride-sharing mission on the SpaceX rocket, known as Lunar Trailblazer, a spacecraft that will map water ice on the Moon.
Odysseus, the spacecraft built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, passes over the near side of the Moon following lunar orbit insertion on Feb. 21, 2024. (Intuitive Machines/X / FOX Weather)
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The IM-2 mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program and contains science investigations for NASA, along with Lonestar Data Holdings, Columbia Sportswear, Nokia, Lunar Outpost, Puli Space, Dymon Co. Ltd. and the German Aerospace Center.
Athena marks the fourth CLPS mission to launch in as many years, and another with Astrobotic will launch later this year.
Intuitive Machines' Athena lander on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launches toward the moon from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, February 26, 2025. (Gregg Newton/AFP / Getty Images)
Athena will be the first mission to test mining resources on the Moon. It will use a drill to collect and examine lunar soil for organic materials.
4G network on the moon?
If Intuitive Machines sticks another landing, it will help test the first cellular network on the Moon. Nokia's Bell Labs's Lunar Surface Communication System (LSCS) is a "network in a box" designed to operate on the lunar South Pole.
A rendering of the MAPP rover and Nova-C lander on the Moon’s surface, courtesy of Intuitive Machines, 2) Nokia base station unit, re-engineered for the lunar mission. (Nokia Bell Labs)
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Two Moon vehicles will be deployed to test the 4G network: Intuitive Machines’ Micro-Nova Hopper named "Grace" and Lunar Outpost’s Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover. Both vehicles will use the LSCS to communicate with Athena on the Moon, even when Grace descends into the permanently shadowed craters of the Moon.
Nokia and Intuitive Machines hope to transmit photos and video, potentially of the first image of ice on the Moon, back to Athena through the lunar cellular network.
Firefly Aerospace lunar lander captures view from Moon's far side
This video taken by Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander shows the far side of the Moon from about 75 miles above the surface. Blue Ghost is set to touch down on the Moon in early March.
When NASA's Artemis astronauts land on the Moon in the next few years, their spacesuits will use similar Nokia cellular technology.
Wednesday's launch sets up the U.S. for two lunar landings in under a week. On Sunday, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander is scheduled to land on the near-side of the Moon. Four days later, Intuitive Machine's Athena will come in for landing on the lunar South Pole.