A US company is trying for its second landing on the Moon. Its new lander, carrying special experiments, launched on a SpaceX rocket on Wednesday. Last year, Intuitive Machines made history by becoming the first private company to put a robot on the Moon. However, their first lander tipped over on its side. They hope to avoid that mistake this time.

This time, their hexagon-shaped lander, called Athena, took off in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 7:16 pm (0016 GMT Thursday) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. If everything goes well, Athena will land around March 6 at the Mons Mouton plateau, a new landing spot near the Moon's south pole.

Athena carries a set of science tools, including a drill to look for ice below the Moon's surface and a unique hopping drone called Grace, named after computer scientist Grace Hopper. The drone is made to move over the Moon’s rough hills, rocks, and craters, a useful skill for future missions with astronauts.

There’s also a small rover on board. This rover will try out a new lunar cell network from Nokia Bell Labs by sending commands, pictures, and videos between the lander, rover, and drone. In the future, this network might even be used in astronauts’ suits.

Intuitive Machines CEO Trent Martin is excited about the hopper drone. He said that these drones can work with rovers in future missions by going into places where vehicles can’t drive like deep lunar pits and underground tunnels made by old lava flows.

Until recently, only a few well-funded government space agencies could make soft landings on the Moon.
Now, the US is trying to make private missions common through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, a partnership between the government and private companies that deliver NASA equipment to the Moon at much lower costs.

NASA’s Nicky Fox said, "I'm very excited to see the science from our tech tests as we prepare for humanity's return to the Moon and our journey to Mars." This is part of the Artemis program, which plans to send astronauts back to the Moon later this decade.

Intuitive Machines is launching its new Moon lander, Athena, to achieve an upright landing after its previous lander, Odysseus, tipped over. The $62.5 million mission uses improved thrusters and a better laser altimeter to safely touch down on the Moon's rough surface. Other missions, like Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and NASA's Lunar Trailblazer, are also heading to the Moon as NASA considers shifting its focus to Mars.

You might also be interested in - Why is Mars so red? A new study explains