Pre-launch photo of Athena lunar lander.
Image credit: SpaceX/Intuitive Machines
That IM-2 Moon lander’s true fate has grabbed the attention of Scott Manley as posted in his YouTube video: “Why Did the Latest Lunar Lander Fall Over, Why Is Landing On The Moon Harder Than We Thought.”
In an impressive “Citizen Science Investigation” (CSI), Manley uncovers new details about how the Intuitive Machines’ Athena Moon lander on March 6 wound up tipping over, leading to loss of the spacecraft and fulfilling operational and full use of its load of payloads.
Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission lander, Athena, during descent toward the lunar surface on March 6, 2025.
Image credit: Intuitive Machines
“Over the last week we’ve learned a few more details about how Intuitive Machines performed a minor miracle in crossing hundreds of thousands of miles, gently slowing itself to arrive at its landing site as slowly as possible only to fall over. Almost like what happened on their first flight,” Manley states.
Leg loss
Manley’s appraisal of the botched landing includes imagery showing loss of an Athena leg as it made its touchdown on the lunar landscape.
Busted landing leg.
Image credit: Dymon
Thanks to Japan’s lunar rover, YAOKI, developed by Dymon, that device was not deployed but snagged 25 photos from inside the full-stop location of Athena. “While all the images were taken from the same angle, we discovered that by stacking, adjusting, and analyzing them, various details became visible,” explains a Dymon posting.
Meanwhile, Philip Stooke, a Moon mapping specialist at the University of Western Ontario, processed the Dymon rover images a different way. An image was made by stacking multiple frames several times, Stooke told Inside Outer Space, each processed in different ways, with contrast stretches and high pass filtering using different values. Then the various stacks of images were merged to create a new image, he said.
Image credit: Philip Stooke
Rest in pieces
The IM-2 Athena lander hit the surface faster than intended and ended up on its side within a 65-foot diameter (20-meters) crater.
NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spots the IM-2 site.
Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
On March 6, the Athena lander made its way down to attempt a landing in Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau near the Moon’s South Pole. The effort was part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and the space agency’s Artemis campaign to establish a long-term lunar presence.
Athena Moon lander tipped over.
Image credit: Intutive Machines
But in a bit of a retro-replay, the IM-2 botched landing seems similar to the IM-1 mission of the group’s Odysseus lunar lander last year.
Coming in too hot
Back in February 2024, the $118 million IM-1 Odysseus spacecraft was victorious in becoming the first U.S.-built probe to make a lunar touchdown since the Apollo 17 human-carrying moon trek over 50 years earlier.
However, it too was not a glitch-free ride to its intended destination, Malapert A, near the Moon’s south pole. Like the Athena, that six-legged Odysseus lander came in hot.
The IM-1 mission arrived with a higher downward and horizontal speed than designed for, hitting harder, skidding across sloping terrain, snapping off some of its landing gear in the process
For Scott Manley’s video that contains a detailed look at the IM-2 mission Moon landing, go to:
Image credit: Scott Manley
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