Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: Intuitive Machines

After liftoff on February 26, the Intuitive Machines’ Athena lunar lander established a stable attitude, solar charging, and radio communications contact with our mission operations center in Houston.

According to Intuitive Machines, the lander is in excellent health, sending selfies and preparing for a series of main engine firings to refine the probe’s trajectory ahead of lunar orbit insertion, planned on March 3.

Intuitive Machines is targeting a lunar landing opportunity on March 6.

Image credit: NASA/Inside Outer Space screengrab

Science instruments onboard Lunar Trailblazer smallsat probe for lunar water.
Image credit: Jasper Miura, Lockheed Martin

Trailblazer

Also deployed after the SpaceX Falcon 9 boost, and now en route to the Moon, is the Caltech-led Lunar Trailblazer.

Mission operators at Caltech in Pasadena, California, have received an initial signal from NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer. This indicates that the small spacecraft has powered up.

Weighing only 440 pounds (200 kilograms) and measuring 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide when its solar panels are fully deployed, Lunar Trailblazer will orbit the Moon about 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface.

The small satellite will generate the highest-ever resolution maps of the Moon’s surface water to determine the water’s location, form, abundance, and how it changes over time.