Landing on the Moon is not easy. Shortly after touching down in a crater near the South Pole of the Moon, IntuitiveMachines’ Athena lander collected data and called an early end of mission at 1:15 a.m. EST (0615 UTC) March 7. Planned to land at Mons Mouton, IM-2 touched down at approximately 12:30 p.m. EST March 6, more than 1,300 feet (400 meters) from its intended landing site. Intuitive Machines said images collected later confirmed the lander was on its side, preventing it from fully operating a drill and other instruments before its batteries were depleted. Carrying NASA technology and science, IM-2 was part of Intuitive Machines’ second Moon delivery for NASA under the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and #Artemis campaign. The IM-2 mission landed closer to the lunar South Pole than any previous lander. Image description: Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 lunar lander is on its side at the bottom center of the image, captured on March 6. The lunar lan...