Watch live from the Moon: Second US lunar lander in a week to touchdown Thursday
Intuitive Machine aims to set down its second Nova-C lander on the Moon on Thursday. This time the lander is named Athena and will land on the south pole region known as Mons Mouton, a possible landing site for future human missions.
Athena lunar lander sends back images from Moon's south pole
While in orbit, Intuitive Machine's Nova-C lunar lander named Athena captured these views of its future landing spot, Mons Mouton, on the Moon's south pole.
HOUSTON – There is a robotic Moon landing happening Thursday. If this feels like déjà vu, it's because a separate lunar lander successfully touched down there just five days ago.
The space industry is in its Moon era, with dozens of robotic missions planned to our only natural satellite in the coming years – two happening this week. The first was Firefly Aerospace, landing its Blue Ghost mission on the near side of the Moon. Next up is the Nova-C lander named Athena by Intuitive Machines, but it is set to land in a different region on the lunar south pole known as Mons Mouton, which is also a landing site candidate for NASA's human missions under the Artemis program.
Both landers are by private space companies from Texas and are part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which sends U.S. space agency science to the Moon.
MOON READIES FOR FIRST CELL SERVICE AMID AMERICA'S LATEST PRIVATE LUNAR LAUNCH
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.
A photo taken on March 3 after Athena successfully entered her intended circular orbit around the Moon.
How to watch the landing live
For the first time, images from a lunar mission will be shared in real-time.
A small rover on Athena by MIT Media Labs will share 3D images of the lunar surface with the world. According to Comcast, these images could come in real-time and will be shared throughout the mission.
Three payloads from the MIT Media Lab will be on a small rover called the Lunar Outpost. The rover should deploy soon after landing and send back images from the surface. Images will be posted on the MIT website at tothemoontostay.org.
Intuitive Machines is targeting a soft landing around 11:30 a.m. ET on Thursday. NASA and Intuitive Machines plan to begin live coverage as Athena touches down on the South Pole, which can be viewed live on NASA.gov.
If Athena sticks her landing, and stays upright, it will be a resounding success for Houston-based Intuitive Machines. The first Nova-C lander, Odysseus, toppled over during the landing process in February 2024, but NASA still hailed it a success as the first American landing since 1972.