RobotRisk Autonomous Systems Incident & Risk Register
RobotRiskIntuitive Machines › 06 Mar 2025

IM-2 Athena lander topples over in shadowed crater, mission ends early

S4 · 06 Mar 2025 · Intuitive Machines · Mons Mouton, Moon

Record

CompanyIntuitive Machines
IndustrySpace robotics
Type(s)mission-loss
Date06 Mar 2025 (day precision)
Time of day12:31 ET
LocationMons Mouton, Moon
Severity (serious injury, total loss, or grounding)
Scale1 lander, total mission loss
Confidencehigh
Verified flagYes - independently re-checked against the cited source

Summary

Intuitive Machines' second lander, Athena, touched down roughly 200 meters off-target near the lunar south pole and fell on its side inside a shadowed crater; loss of sunlight on its solar panels drained its batteries and ended the mission early.

Primary source

SpaceNews

Publisher: SpaceNews · Retrieved: 2026-09-16

Supporting source rows (1)
DateSupporting source rowPublisherLink
06 Mar 2025 IM-2 Athena lander topples over in shadowed crater, mission ends early SpaceNews SpaceNews

Intuitive Machines other incidents timeline

Space robotics context

mission-loss context

Intuitive Machines industry position

Related incidents

Other Intuitive Machines entries

Report a correction

Open a prefilled GitHub issue

Also from Critical Systems Analysis: CSA - functional safety engineering · Company directory · FSTalent - functional safety jobs