--- title: "Lunar Lander Trips and Dies Inside South Pole Crater" description: "Intuitive Machine's lander toppled over inside a crater on the Moon's south pole after making its landing attempt this week." date: "2025-03-08" modified: "2025-03-08" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/lunar-lander-trips-dies-south-pole-crater" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "intuitive machines" - "lunar lander" - "lunar south pole" - "moon" --- # Lunar Lander Trips and Dies Inside South Pole Crater ![Intuitive Machine's lander toppled over inside a crater on the Moon's south pole after making its landing attempt this week.]() *\Image: Intuitive Machines\* Houston-based space company Intuitive Machines' Athena lunar lander [isn't doing so hot](). The lander made its attempt at a landing near the Moon's Mons Mouton, a flat-topped mountain roughly 100 miles from the south pole, around noon on Thursday. But things didn't quite go as planned. The lander touched down sideways within a crater near the Moon's south pole, causing it to tip over. The company's predecessor, Odyssey, [suffered a strikingly similar fate]() last year. "We don't believe we're in the correct attitude on the surface of the Moon yet again," Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus announced during a [Thursday press conference](). An [image]() released by the company today shows the toppled spacecraft with a half-lit Earth glinting in the background. It's a bittersweet resting place for what could've been the second successful landing on the Moon in [less than three days](). https://twitter.com/Int_Machines/status/1898018154380427501 And as far as Intuitive Machines is concerned, it's officially game over. As the [*Associated Press* reports](), the company didn't waste any time, declaring Athena's death less than 24 hours after it touched down. According to telemetry beamed back by the spacecraft, the lander missed its intended landing spot roughly 100 miles from the Moon's south pole by more than 800 feet. That's in part due to it autonomously trying to avoid hazards on the cratered surface. Fortunately, the team was able to activate several scientific experiments before shutting down Athena's systems for good, per the *AP*. But thanks to its extremely unfortunate orientation, it's unlikely that it'll be able to get enough solar energy to power its instruments, which include a [drill](), a drone, and [three rovers](). "With the direction of the Sun, the orientation of the solar panels, and extreme cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to recharge," the team declared in [an update](). While Athena has already been written off, Texas-based startup Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander fared much better. It [successfully touched down on the lunar surface]() on Sunday, and sent back imagery showing its surroundings, the Mare Crisium, a massive basin on the Moon's near side. "With the hardest part behind us, Firefly looks forward to completing more than 14 days of surface operations, again raising the bar for commercial cislunar capabilities," said Firefly CTO Shea Ferring in a [statement](). Meanwhile, Intuitive Machines is dealing with some serious fallout following its second failed landing in just two years. As the [*New York Times* reports](), the company's shares fell 20 percent on Thursday. The stock price is down over 50 percent over the last month. Nonetheless, Altemus sees the situation as a glass half full. "Any time that you ship a spacecraft to Florida for flight and end up a week later operating on the Moon, I declare that a success," he said during a post-landing news conference. It's an unfortunate development for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which contracts private companies to develop more affordable ways to deliver scientific payloads to the Moon's surface. As the *NYT* points out, there have been four missions under the program so far, and only one appears to have been a success. Those four missions include both of Intuitive Machines' failed attempts, as well as Firefly's successful touchdown. The fourth, Astrobotic's Peregrine spacecraft, suffered a failure during launch early last year, causing it to lose its propellant drift helplessly through space. Astrobotic eventually decided to have it burn up in the Earth's atmosphere instead of venturing onward. **More on the lander:** *[There's Some Serious Drama on the Moon]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()