Athena, a commercially built spacecraft that is loaded with cutting-edge technology and science experiments, has landed on the moon. But mission controllers at Intuitive Machines, the company that built and operates the spacecraft, have yet to confirm its exact status, although the available data as of this writing suggests Athena is still operational.
If and when Intuitive Machines can conclusively declare that Athena has reached the moon in good health, it will have joined Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost, another commercial lander that made its moonfall on Sunday—upping the tally of active U.S. lunar surface missions to two. The back-to-back feats are considered important precursors to future crewed missions to the moon under NASA’s ambitious Artemis program.
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