Private lunar lander dead after landing in crater near Moon’s south pole

A private lunar lander is no longer working after landing sideways in a crater near the Moon’s south pole and its mission is over, officials said on Friday.

The news came less than 24 hours after the botched landing attempt by Intuitive Machines, based in Texas, in the US.

Launched last week, the lander, named Athena, missed its mark by more than 800 feet and ended up in a frigid crater, the company said.

It managed to send back pictures confirming its position, and activate a few experiments, before going silent.

Nasa and other customers had packed the lander with an ice drill, drone and two rovers.

It is unlikely Athena’s batteries can be recharged, given the way the lander’s solar panels are pointed and the extreme cold in the crater.

“The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission,” the company said in a statement.

This was the second landing attempt for Intuitive Machines.

The first, a year ago, also ended with a sideways landing, but the company was able to keep it going for longer than this time, despite hampered communications and operations.

Earlier in the week, another Texas company scored a successful landing under Nasa’s commercial lunar delivery programme.

Firefly Aerospace put its Blue Ghost lander down in the far northern latitudes of the Moon’s near side.