By Akash Sriram
(Reuters) – Shares of Intuitive Machines slumped to close 22% lower on Friday after the U.S. space exploration company confirmed that its second moon lander, Athena, landed on its side a day ago, similar to its first attempt last year.
The six-legged lander touched down at a site about 100 miles (160 km) from the moon’s south pole, but Intuitive Machines ended the mission as the spacecraft wound up on its side after completing several mission milestones.
“With the direction of the sun, the orientation of the solar panels, and extreme cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to recharge,” the company said.
Shares of the Houston, Texas-based company had closed 20% lower on Thursday after more than doubling in the past 12 months.
Athena carried 11 payloads and scientific instruments, including a drill to check for water ice, other resources in the lunar soil, the first data center and cellular network on the moon.
Despite the lander’s configuration, Intuitive Machines was able to collect just 250 megabytes of data for NASA, the space agency said in a blog.
Separately, SpaceX’s Starship mega rocket, the largest in the world, exploded on Thursday, minutes after its launch, raining debris off the coast of Florida and the Bahamas, in what was the Elon Musk-led company’s second straight failure.
As part of NASA’s strategy to revive lunar exploration with reduced costs, Intuitive is among several companies leading the private-sector return to the moon by the U.S.
Intuitive Machines may delay its third lunar landing mission set for next year under the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services program to wait for the deployment of a company communications satellite, CEO Altemus said on Thursday.
The space agency also awarded the firm with a fourth mission in 2027 to deliver six payloads to the moon that could help reveal the origin of water throughout the solar system.
Meanwhile, Austin-based Firefly Aerospace over the weekend celebrated a clean lunar touchdown of its Blue Ghost lander, marking the most successful soft landing by a private company so far.
“It (sideways landing) may have an impact on (Intuitive’s) credibility, but we still think they are one of the better positioned companies to capitalize on the industry,” said Andres Sheppard, senior analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald.
“In our view at least, it’s not indicative of the company now being in a dire situation.”
(Reporting by Akash Sriram and Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Arun Koyyur)
