After a day of uncertainty following a harrowing moon landing attempt, the company Intuitive Machines sealed the fate of its latest lunar probe Athena. The spacecraft, which attempted a historic landing in rugged terrain near the south pole of the moon on Thursday (March 6), had toppled on its side inside a frigid crater.

Intuitive Machines out of Texas is sending a second lunar lander, this time Athena, to the moon, where it will drill for water, ice and other gases.

Intuitive Machines launches its second moon lander, which will use NASA and commercially developed tools to search for ice in the moon's crust.

If all goes according to plan, the Athena lander will touch down near the moon's south pole on or around March 6.

Intuitive Machines second NASA-backed lunar lander mission will deliver scientific instruments to hunt for water under the moon's surface.

St. Petersburg-based space startup Lonestar Data Holdings says its lunar data center is the only surviving payload after a private lunar lander came down sideways on the moon.

back-to-back liftoffs of two SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets from Cape Canaveral on the IM-2 lunar lander and Starlink 12-13 missions. Original story: A Falcon 9 rocket launched an Intuitive Machines lunar lander to the moon at 7:16 p.m. EST from NASA's Kennedy ...

The lunar lander built by aerospace company Intuitive Machines launched Wednesday on an eight-day journey for its water-hunting mission on the moon.