Washington DC: Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched the IM-2 mission, the third Moon landing mission of the year on Wednesday (local time). It carried the ‘Athena’ Nova-C class lunar lander. The mission aimed to get closer to the moon's south pole with a drone that will get into a jet-black crater. Notably, this crater has reportedly never seen the Sun. The IM-2 mission was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. The mission is led by Intuitive Machines lander, named Athena.
"Lighting the way to the Moon: As @Int_Machines ’ lander lifts off aboard a @SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, it takes with it NASA science and tech. Its mission? To help us better understand the lunar environment in preparation for future human explorers," NASA said in a tweet.
Visuals Of The Launch:
Lighting the way to the Moon: As @Int_Machines’ lander lifts off aboard a @SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, it takes with it NASA science and tech. Its mission? To help us better understand the lunar environment in preparation for future human explorers. pic.twitter.com/KIx5vnpHRC
— NASA (@NASA) February 27, 2025
The 15-foot (4.7-meter) Athena will target a landing 160 kilometres from the lunar south pole and just 400 metres away is a permanently shadowed crater - the ultimate destination for the drone named Grace.
Named after the late computer programming pioneer Grace Hopper, the three-foot drone will make three increasingly higher and longer test hops across the lunar surface using hydrazine fueled-thrusters for flight and cameras and lasers for navigation, reported The Associated Press.
This mission is an important part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. It aimed at establishing a long-term human presence on the Moon.
If those excursions go well, it will hop into the nearby pitch-black crater, an estimated 65 feet (20 meters) deep. Science instruments from Hungary and Germany will take measurements at the bottom while hunting for frozen water.
It will be the first up-close peek inside one of the many shadowed craters dotting both the north and south poles.
NASA is reportedly paying USD 62 million to Intuitive Machines to get its drill and other experiments to the moon. Meanwhile, The company, in turn, sold space on the lander to others. It also opened up the Falcon rocket to ride-sharing.