SpaceX starts with Athena: On the moon mission of the future!

SpaceX starts with Athena: On the moon mission of the future!

Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA - On February 27, 2025, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was successfully launched to bring the “Athena” of the company's intuitive machines into orbit. The start took place from the Rampe 39a of the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and was the result of months of preparations. "Athena" is the second commercial moon landing of the company, just a year after the first mission.

Already on Wednesday evening (US local period) the rocket floated into the sky. The planned arrival of "Athena" on the moon is targeted for March 6 at the earliest, with the aim of exploring the area of Mons Mouton in the southern Pole area of the moon. The mission is designed for about ten days and has the goal of finding valuable raw materials and water on the moon.

Technical details of the "Athena" mission

"Athena" measures 4.3 meters in height and has a diameter of 1.6 meters. The ferry is equipped with the latest technology, including:

• A drill that can penetrate up to one meter below the moon surface,
• A mass spectrometer for the detection of volatile fabrics,
• A small device called "Grace", which absorbs surface pictures and explores craters,
• Two Rover: "Mapp" and the two -wheeled "Yaoki".

The "IM-2" mission is carried out in cooperation with numerous companies and organizations, including the German Aerospace Center (DLR). It is part of the NASA initiative "CLPS" (Commercial Lunar Payoad Services), which enables private companies to participate in the research of the moon.

competition in the moon room

The mission of intuitive machines enters an increasingly competitive space. Other private moon landings are currently being planned. The Blue Ghost Mission 1 of Firefly Aerospace and the Hakuto-R Mission 2 from Isspace started on Wednesday. These two missions aim to bring scientific and technical payloads to the moon surface. In particular, the Hakuto-R Mission 2 is remarkable because it is the second attempt to bring a country to the moon after the first attempt on April 25, 2023 failed.

Blue Ghost will probably land in the Mare Crisium on March 2 and will transport ten NASA user loads, including radition-tolerant computers and systems for dust removal. ISPACE has also optimized its "Resilience" country to be successful after a failed attempt two years earlier.

outlook and challenges

moon landings are considered one of the most technically challenging activities in space travel, and failures often occur. The first moon landings in this new era already showed high risks - like the first commercial moon landing of intuitive machines that landed, but overturned by damaged landing legs.

The current moon missions represent a significant progress in the world's effort to explore the moon and use its resources. Despite the challenges that lie in front of the companies, the goal of establishing the moon as a goal for future explorations and technologies remains firmly at a glance.

Further information can be found in the reports of t-online and Flugrevue.