IM-2 Mission Launched: SpaceX and Intuitive Machines Target Lunar Exploration

SpaceX is intensifying its lunar exploration activities in 2025, with the third Moon mission of the year being a strategic move towards new goals. SpaceX successfully launched the IM-2 mission, commanded by Intuitive Machines, carrying the ‘Athena’ Nova-C class lunar lander on Thursday. The mission is a significant step in progress in lunar research and exploration.
Leaving Cape Canaveral at 5:46 AM (Indian Time) on a Falcon 9 rocket, the mission is bound for the South Pole of the Moon. It is critical to NASA’s Artemis program that seeks to return mankind to the Moon in a sustainable presence and to the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
NASA marked the launch on X, saying, “Lighting the way to the Moon: As Intuitive Machines’ lander blasts off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, it takes NASA science and technology with it to inform us about the lunar environment for future human explorers.”
Athena lander will land on Mons Mouton, the tallest officially designated lunar mountain, on March 6. The mission has high-tech payloads such as the Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) and the PRIME-1 suite to study the lunar soil and hunt for water ice.
Besides that, the mission consists of the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover, the Micro-Nova Hopper, and Grace, a tiny hopping robot meant to map shadowed craters. Intuitive Machines was given $62 million for the mission by NASA, although some of the payload space is also sold to other customers.