Watch: Elon Musk's SpaceX Launches Third Moon Mission This Year With Athena Lander

Science: SpaceX launched its IM-2 lunar mission from NASA's Kennedy Space Center aiming to get closer to the moon's south pole this time with a drone that will hop into a jet-black crater that never sees the sun.

Expected Landing on Moon

This intuitive moon lander called Athena is taking its fast pace to the moon with an expected landing date on march 6. 

Recently, US and Japanese companies shared a rocket and separately launched landers toward moon. Texas-based Firefly Aerospace also planning to launch there first space mission. 

Mission Cost

NASA is paying $62 million to Intuitive Machines to get its drill and other experiments to the moon. The company, in turn, sold space on the lander to others. It also opened up the Falcon rocket to ride-sharing.

NASA Shared the Launch Video WATCH

“The Moon is about to get a new visitor - and her name's Athena! On Feb 26 at 7:16pm EST, Intuitive Machines' Athena lander lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from LC-39A. With @NASA payloads onboard, this flight is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative and #Artemis campaign. The Athena lander is scheduled to land near the lunar south pole region of the Moon on March 6.” NASA posted.

What Equipment Are They Carrying?

The two US landers are carrying tens of millions of dollars' worth of experiments for NASA as it prepares to return astronauts to the moon.

“It's an amazing time. There's so much energy,” NASA's science mission chief Nicky Fox told Press a few hours ahead of the launch. 

First Intuitive Lander?

This is not Intuitive Machines' first lunar outing. Last year, the Texas business scored the first US touchdown on the moon in over 50 years. However, a distance measuring equipment failed, and the lander came down too hard, breaking a leg and turning onto its side.

NASA Shares Details 

Nasa shared post on its social media handle that reads, “The Moon is about to get a new visitor - and her name's Athena! On Feb 26 at 7:16pm ET,  @Int_Machine's Athena lander lifted off on a @SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from LC-39A. With @NASA payloads onboard, this flight is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative and #Artemis campaign.”

Rovers to Collect Sample

NASA's drill also needs an upright landing to pierce beneath the lunar surface to gather soil samples for analysis. Nasa will collect soil sample for its research purposes.  

Countries in Elite Club

It's an extraordinarily elite club. Only five countries have pulled off a lunar landing over the decades: Russia, the US, China, India and Japan. The moon is littered with wreckage from many past failures. 

ALSO READ: Captured by Neil Armstrong, Shared by NASA: Space Agency Releases New Stunning Panaromic Photos of Moon's Surface

Athena's Specs And Details 

The 15-foot (4.7-meter) Athena will target a landing 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the lunar south pole. Just a quarter-mile (400 meters) away is a permanently shadowed crater — the ultimate destination for the drone named Grace.

Named after the late computer programming pioneer Grace Hopper, the 3-foot (1-meter) drone will make three increasingly higher and longer test hops across the lunar surface using hydrazine fueled-thrusters for flight and cameras and lasers for navigation.

If those excursions go well, it will hop into the nearby pitch-black crater, an estimated 65 feet (20 meters) deep. Science instruments from Hungary and Germany will take measurements at the bottom while hunting for frozen water.

It will be the first up-close peek inside one of the many shadowed craters dotting both the north and south poles. Scientists suspect these craters are packed with tons of ice. If so, this ice could be transformed by future explorers into water to drink, air to breathe and even rocket fuel. 

What's Next

NASA's Lunar Trailblazer satellite, which will journey separately to the moon in the coming months before entering lunar orbit to map the distribution of water below. A private spacecraft that will fly by an asteroid, a prelude to asteroid mining, was also on board.