March 6 (UPI) -- The commercially and privately constructed Athena spacecraft landed on the moon Thursday, the second such device to do so in a week.
Developed by the Intuitive Machines company, Athena is about the size of a dishwasher, and is to explore the moon's south polar region with a week-long mission to search for potential water ice below the lunar surface.
However, it won't be alone on the Earth's main natural satellite, as the Blue Ghost lander, developed by Firefly Aerospace, successfully landed on the near side of the moon Sunday in the Mare Crisium basin region. Blue Ghost's mission is to conduct experiments supplied by NASA.
Both Blue Ghost and Athena are part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, devised to sustain the development of moon landers by private companies. The end goal of the program is to one day return astronauts to the moon, after hiring businesses to land technology, cargo and science experiments there.
Athena entered lunar orbit Monday, gathering data as IM checked the lander's systems, then completed its Descent Orbit Insertion at 4:33 a.m. CST Thursday in preparation for its touchdown on Mons Mouton, a lunar mountain.
Athena then completed its landing at 11:57 p.m. CST, but then required several minutes for the IM crew monitoring the landing to confirm the touchdown was successful, and that Athena would be able to carry out its mission.
The craft is equipped with experimental cellular communications gear, a rover and a device known as a hopper, which can leave Athena to explore a shadowed crater with the goal of finding water ice. The presence of such ice could allow future astronauts to develop water, rocket fuel and air while on the moon, so that such necessities wouldn't need to be shipped there. Athena will also have the unique experience of seeing a solar eclipse on March 14, but unlike an earthbound eclipse, in this case it would be the earth itself obscuring the view of the sun.
The successful landing of Athena makes it the second spacecraft landed by Intuitive Machines, which first landed a craft dubbed Odysseus on the moon in February of 2024, making it the first American spacecraft to land on the lunar surface since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.