Nova-C IM-2

Mission specifications

Operator

Intuitive Machines

Prime contractor

Intuitive Machines

Launch

2025-02-27

Landing

2025-03-06

Landing site

Mons Mouton plateau, lunar south pole (~400 m off target)

Customer

NASA-CLPS

Payload

10 payloads deliveredas of 2025-03-06^[1]Including NASA PRIME-1 (TRIDENT drill + neutron spectrometer) and IM's µNova hopper

Contract value

$62.5Mas of 2025-02-27^[2]CLPS Task Order PRIME-1 for water-ice prospecting at Mons Mouton

Key findings

• 1.Landed on March 6, 2025 at the Mons Mouton plateau, touching down closer to the lunar south pole than any prior spacecraft — the southernmost lunar landing in history.
• 2.Came down off target after altimetry problems (NASA initially cited ~400 m/1,300 ft; Intuitive Machines later localized it ~250 m/820 ft from the aim point): Athena struck the plateau, tipped over and skidded, coming to rest on its side inside a crater with its solar panels poorly illuminated.
• 3.NASA's PRIME-1 payload still exercised the TRIDENT drill through its full range of motion in the lunar environment — auger rotation, full extension, percussion hammering, and thermal checks — but the sideways orientation kept the drill from penetrating the regolith to feed samples to the mass spectrometer.
• 4.The MSolo mass spectrometer operated and detected gases, but initial analysis judged them anthropogenic — spacecraft propellant vapors and traces of Earth-origin water — rather than native lunar volatiles.
• 5.Starved of sunlight in the cold crater, the lander's batteries depleted less than 13 hours after touchdown; about 250 MB of data was transmitted to NASA before the mission was declared over early on March 7, 2025.

Mission outcome

IM-2 Athena reached the Mons Mouton plateau on March 6, 2025, planting the southernmost landing ever attempted on the Moon, but altimeter trouble caused it to skid and tip onto its side in a crater. Starved of sunlight, the lander lasted under 13 hours before its batteries died, yet NASA's PRIME-1 team still demonstrated the TRIDENT drill's full range of motion and ran the MSolo spectrometer, returning roughly 250 MB of data. The primary goal of drilling for and measuring south-polar water ice went unmet, making Athena a partial success that advanced key prospecting hardware while underscoring how unforgiving precise polar touchdowns remain.