Commercial lunar lander Athena heading to the moon with a drill, rover and rocket-powered "hopper" to search for ice
CBSN
With two commercial lunar landers already on their way, Houston-based Intuitive Machines has high hopes for its second robotic lander — Athena, the centerpiece of a multi-element, NASA-sponsored mission — launching Wednesday to help pave the way for human expeditions and search for ice.
Liftoff from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center is targeted for 7:16 p.m. EST. Assuming an on-time launch and no major problems, the Athena lander is expected to descend to touchdown on a flat mesalike structure known as Mons Mouton on March 6. The landing site is just 100 miles from the moon's south pole.
Another privately-built moon lander, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, was launched by a Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket on Jan. 15 and is on course to land on the moon early Sunday. Touching down near the center of Mare Crisium, it is equipped with 10 NASA-sponsored instruments to collect data needed for planned astronaut landings in the agency's Artemis program.
