Last week was a big week for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program as it saw two landings by two different companies. The hope was that the agency would end up with two successful providers of NASA science to the Moon’s surface; instead, it saw one, with the other falling over once again.
Firefly’s near perfect landing
On March 2, Firefly successfully touched down on the Moon on its first attempt. This started the week off on a high note, with the company overcoming the odds of failing on its first landing attempt, as we’ve seen so many times. While the company took the longest to get its Blue Ghost lander ready, it has seemingly paid off, as it looks to be the only one that can actually do it.
This marked Firefly as the first US company from NASA’s CLPS program to complete a soft landing on the Moon – which also makes it the first US company to land on the Moon as well.
The short and wide lander carried with it ten science payloads from NASA, eight of which have already begun gathering data.
Not to show off, Firefly shared a dramatic compilation of the final stages of landing onto Mare Crisium, in the northern portion of the Moon’s “near side.” The video ends with a dramatic silhouette of the landing, reminiscent of an image captured on Apollo 11.
Intuitive Machines, sideways… again?
On Thursday, March 6 (my birthday), Intuitive Machines was due for its lunar landing attempt. Its IM-2 lander, named Athena, sadly did not stick its landing. Similar to IM-1, the lander ended up on its side. Given the much taller and skinnier base compared to Blue Ghost, it led to some rather humorous “I play Kerbal Space Program, so I’m smarter than you” comments on social media.
For what it is worth, it appears that Athena’s lander was much softer than the company’s first attempt as there’s no mention of broken landing legs. However, the argument of this being another “soft” landing by the company would be incorrect. However, Intuitive Machines has done twice what others haven’t been able to do once: land and operate a spacecraft on the Moon’s surface.
Sadly, Athena’s operations on the lunar surface were short-lived. Due to its location in a crater on the lunar surface, Intuitive Machines determined it would not be able to recharge the lander’s batteries. While some payload operations were completed, millions of dollars’ worth of potential science data were not collected.
Athena’s mission ended on Friday, March 7, on its side and in a shadow, with a view of Earth between two of its landing legs.
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