Disappointment in Lunar Landing:
A Week in Space

Lying on the Moon

The lunar lander of the American company Intuitive Machines landed on the Moon on March 6 but appears to have tipped onto its side, raising doubts about which of its scientific missions can still be carried out. The lander, Athena, was launched with funding from NASA as part of the CLPS program, which supports private lunar exploration missions in preparation for the return of crewed Moon flights.  It touched down on Malapert Mountain, near the Moon’s south pole, with a primary mission to drill into the surface in search of ice. At a press conference held by the company and NASA a few hours after the landing, Clayton Turner, NASA’s Deputy Administrator for Research, suggested that some scenarios might still allow the drilling mission to proceed. Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, added, "There’s quite a number of objectives we can meet."

Another interesting payload on the lander is the Micro-Nova—a rocket-powered drone designed to detach from the lander and conduct independent flights over the lunar surface, covering distances of several tens or even hundreds of meters. This "hopper" can carry payloads of up to 10 kilograms and access difficult-to-reach locations, such as the floors of small and steep craters. The lander also carries small rovers, and Intuitive Machines plans to test, for the first time on the Moon, a Nokia-built communication network to connect the lander, drone, and rovers.

However, if Athena is indeed lying on its side, its position could prevent operations such as drilling or deploying the drone. It is also generating less power, as not all its solar panels are facing the Sun, which may further limit its functionality. Communication with Earth could be disrupted if its antennas are misaligned, possibly explaining why no images were released hours after landing, despite expectations that the lander would transmit them immediately upon touchdown.

This is Intuitive Machines' second lunar landing. Last year, it became the first private company to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon, though that mission also faced setbacks when some of the spacecraft’s landing legs broke upon touchdown.

Meanwhile, the American company Firefly achieved an impressive success, performing a soft lunar landing on its very first attempt. Its lander, Blue Ghost, completed the first fully successful private Moon landing. Also funded by NASA’s CLPS program, the mission includes geological experiments—such as drilling several meters deep to measure subsurface temperatures—as well as studies on lunar dust behavior and protection against it. The lander is expected to operate for two weeks, making full use of the lunar day, which lasts about 14 Earth days.

Unclear whether it will be able to complete its planned missions. Selfie of the Athena lander shortly before its Moon landing. Source: Intuitive Machines

Starship Explodes Again in Space

The eighth test flight of the Starship system ended in midair explosion after a successful booster landing—closely mirroring the outcome of the seventh test flight in January. The launch and separation of the spacecraft from the booster proceeded without issues, and the booster itself achieved a flawless landing on the launch pad in South Texas, marking SpaceX's third successful booster recovery.

After detaching from the booster, the spacecraft continued into space, but at an altitude of approximately 140 kilometers, several of its engines unexpectedly shut down. It began to spin uncontrollably and ultimately exploded. Debris was spotted in the air south of Florida and over the Bahamas. No injuries or damage were reported, and the debris appears to have fallen into the ocean.

This was SpaceX's second attempt to launch the slightly enlarged version of Starship. The spacecraft was not intended to enter orbit but rather to follow a ballistic trajectory, re-enter the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, and perform a controlled descent over the sea. During the flight, it was supposed to deploy a few dummy satellites, test an intentional in-space engine ignition, and, most importantly, evaluate improvements made to its heat shields for atmospheric reentry. These objectives will now have to wait for future test flights, which cannot proceed until the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) completes its required investigation into the failure.

The successful booster landing and loss of the spacecraft. Starship's eighth test flight:

Lost in Space : Two Missions In Jeopardy

Two spacecraft, launched together two weeks ago on entirely different missions, have lost contact with their operators. NASA engineers are still trying to reestablish communication with the Lunar Trailblazer satellite, which stopped transmitting just a few hours after its launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.  Based on initial data, NASA determined that the satellite entered a slow spin, but attempts to regain control and restore communication have so far been unsuccessful. The satellite was supposed to perform maneuvers to enter a long but fuel-efficient trajectory that would take it to the Moon in July, where it was planned to enter a polar orbit and precisely map the Moon’s ice deposits.

Another spacecraft launched on the same rocket, which also carried the Athena lunar lander, was the private Odin spacecraft, developed by AstroForge. The company is attempting to succeed where others have failed: proving the economic feasibility of asteroid mining. Odin was designed to travel to the asteroid 2022 OB5, capture close-up images, and determine its metal content. The spacecraft  reached a distance of about 300,000 kilometers from Earth, but less than a day after launch, communication was lost. It appears that its solar panels are generating power and that it is generally following its planned trajectory, but without communication, it will be unable to complete its mission.

"We all know that hope is fading," said AstroForge founder Matt Gialich last Saturday. He added that the company had experienced ground station issues, which "significantly hindered our ability to resolve such problems."

Hope is fading, but the metallic asteroids will keep waiting. The Odin spacecraft, prepared for release from a Falcon 9 rocket, near the Athena lunar lander of Intuitive Machines. Source: AstroForge/SpaceX

Securing Europe's Access to Space

About six months after its inaugural test flight, the new European heavy-lift rocket, Ariane 6, successfully completed its first operational mission. The rocket lifted off on March 6 from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, deploying the French reconnaissance satellite CSO-3 into orbit. Manufactured by Airbus, the satellite will provide  high-resolution imagery for the French military and its European allies

The launch had been delayed by more than three months to allow ArianeGroup to resolve the second-stage malfunction that occurred during the rocket’s debut flight. This time, Ariane 6 performed flawlessly.

Despite these contracts, Ariane 6 faces challenges in competing with private launch providers, particularly SpaceX, which offers lower costs through reusable rocket technology. Unlike the current industry trend, Ariane 6 is fully expendable, meaning each rocket is built anew for every launch, with no recovery or reuse of components. While some design improvements may reduce costs, the rocket's primary purpose is to keep European space funding within the continent rather than competing directly in the commercial launch market.

This time, all rocket stages performed as expected. Ariane 6 launch from Kourou, French Guiana, March 6, 2025 | Photo: ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE-ArianeGroup

The Trio at the Edge of the Belt

Space is full of celestial trios. Even the closest star system to Earth, Alpha Centauri, consists of three stars—Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Proxima Centauri— orbiting each other, locked in a complex dance.

Now, researchers suspect that such three-body systems may be even more common than previously thought, even among much smaller celestial bodies.  A new study suggests the possible existence of another such trio in the Kuiper Belt, the outer region of our solar system beyond Neptune’s orbit. Over the past few decades, astronomers have identified thousands of objects in the Kuiper Belt, each at least 10 kilometers in diameter, with likely hundreds of thousands more yet to be discovered. About 40 known Kuiper Belt objects exist in binary systems, where two bodies orbit each other. However, around a decade ago, scientists discovered that one such binary was actually a three-body system, consisting of objects ranging in size from 130 to 270 kilometers.

Now, new measurements suggest the possible existence of another three-body system in the Kuiper Belt. Once again, this involves objects previously classified as a binary system, orbiting each other at a distance of about 7,600 kilometers. This system, called Altjira, is located nearly four billion kilometers from Earth. A team led by researchers from Brigham Young University in Utah analyzed more than 17 years of observational data from the Keck Telescope in Hawaii, and noticed a subtle deviation in the orbit of one of the two bodies from its expected path. Further observations with the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed the anomaly.

This led to two possible explanations: either one of the objects has an unusual shape, or what was thought to be a single object is actually two closely bound bodies, making Altjira a three-body system—or at least it was until two of the objects merged into one, now estimated to be about 200 kilometers in diameter.

Due to the extreme distance, Earth-based telescopes cannot directly confirm whether Altjira is truly a trio. However, astronomers plan to use the James Webb Space Telescope to provide higher-resolution imaging that could offer a definitive answer.

Why does it matter? The planetary bodies in the Kuiper Belt are likely remnants of the gas and dust from which the Sun and planets formed. The Kuiper Belt likely contains primordial remnants of the gas and dust that formed the Sun and planets. Scientists are working to determine whether these planetary bodies took shape through collisions and mergers over time or if they formed directly from gravitationally accumulating material, much like binary and triple star systems. Confirming the existence of a triple system in the Kuiper Belt could provide crucial evidence to settle this debate and offer deeper insights into the solar system’s early history. It could also suggest that more such systems exist, potentially yielding further insights.

Two separate bodies, merged objects, or a single body with an unusual shape? Artist’s impression of the Altjira system | Source: NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)