A private company, Intuitive Machines, launched a new lunar lander named Athena on Wednesday. This time, the goal is to land closer to the moon's south pole and send a drone into a dark crater that never gets sunlight.

Athena was launched aboard a SpaceX rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center and is taking a quick route to the moon, aiming to land on March 6. The team hopes for a smooth landing, unlike their previous mission, where the lander tipped over upon touchdown. For the first time, so many spacecraft are heading toward the Moon at the same time. Last month, US and Japanese companies launched their landers separately but shared the same rocket. Texas-based Firefly Aerospace had a big head start and is expected to reach the Moon first this weekend. Two U.S. landers are carrying experiments worth tens of millions of dollars for NASA as part of its preparations to send astronauts back to the moon. “It's an amazing time. There's so much energy,” NASA's science mission chief Nicky Fox told The Associated Press a few hours ahead of the launch. 

Last year, Texas-based Intuitive Machines became the first U.S. company in over 50 years to land on the moon. However, a distance-measuring instrument failed, causing the lander to hit the surface too hard, break a leg, and tip onto its side. The company says it has now fixed that issue along with many others. This time, a proper upright landing is crucial. If the lander tips over again, the drone and two rovers won’t be able to move out, and NASA’s drill won’t be able to dig into the lunar surface to collect soil samples. “Certainly, we will be better this time than we were last time. But you never know what could happen,” said Trent Martin, senior vice president of space systems. “It's an extraordinarily elite club. Only five countries have pulled off a lunar landing over the decades: Russia, the US, China, India and Japan. The moon is littered with wreckage from many past failures.

The 15-foot (4.7-meter) spacecraft, Athena, is set to land about 100 miles (160 kilometres) from the Moon’s south pole. Just 400 metres (a quarter-mile) away lies a permanently shadowed crater, which is the final destination for a drone named Grace. Grace, a 3-foot (1-meter) drone, is named after the late computer programming pioneer Grace Hopper. It will perform three test flights, each reaching greater heights and distances across the lunar surface. The drone will navigate using cameras and lasers, while its thrusters, powered by hydrazine fuel, will enable flight. If everything goes as planned, the lander will move into a nearby crater that is completely dark and about 65 feet (20 meters) deep. Science instruments from Hungary and Germany will take measurements at the bottom, searching for frozen water.

This will be the first time scientists get a close look inside one of the many shadowed craters at the moon’s poles. Experts believe these craters may contain large amounts of ice. If confirmed, this ice could be converted into drinking water, breathable air, and even rocket fuel for future space missions. NASA is paying Intuitive Machines $62 million to transport its drill and other scientific experiments to the moon. The company has also sold space on the lander to other customers and made extra room available on the Falcon rocket for additional payloads. NASA's Lunar Trailblazer satellite was among the hitchhikers on this mission. It will travel separately to the Moon over the next few months and eventually enter lunar orbit to map where water is located beneath the surface. Another passenger was a private spacecraft that will follow an asteroid for a flyby, serving as a test run for future asteroid mining.