The Athena lander, built by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines, descended to the lunar surface but the orientation of the lander is currently unknown.

IM-2 is part of a new wave of private lunar exploration. For example, Firefly Aerospace successfully put its Blue Ghost lander down in the Mare Crisium ("Sea of Crises") region of the moon's northern hemisphere just this past Sunday (March 2).

A lunar lander built by Intuitive Machines is scheduled to descend to the moon’s surface today, potentially marking the second landing by a private company on the moon in the last week, roughly a year after the aerospace firm completed the first lunar landing by an American spacecraft in decades.