Thursday was an eventful day for America’s space industry.
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Intuitive Machines’ six-legged Athena lander failed to land upright, marking its second unsuccessful landing.
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Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket ended in a fiery demise (Test Flight 8) over the Caribbean. However, there were some bright spots —Starship’s Super Heavy first-stage booster returned to Earth as planned and was successfully caught mid-air by massive “chopsticks.”
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Earlier in the week, Firefly Aerospace’s “Blue Ghost” lander became the first private spacecraft to land on the Moon successfully.
Let’s begin with Intuitive Machines. Shares of the Houston-based spacecraft startup plunged 20% on Thursday, extending losses to as much as 34% in premarket trading after the Athena spacecraft landed on its side, complicating power generation from its solar panels and rendering the mission “off-nominal.”
Canaccord Genuity analyst Austin Moeller noted that Intuitive Machines had received roughly 90% of its $120 million contract for the landing. However, some milestone payments depend on the operation of payloads, including a drill to check for water or ice below the lunar surface and the first data center and cellular network on the Moon.
Intuitive Machines says its second moon lander fell on its side for the second time. The company is one of many primed by NASA to return the United States to the moon https://t.co/Y9uUwzibKD pic.twitter.com/q8iiBKnDRc
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 7, 2025
This is Intuitive Machines’ second moon landing attempt. The previous attempt did not go as planned; the IM-1 spacecraft tipped over on its side during a hard landing last year.
Separately, SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket exploded in low Earth orbit during a test flight, marking its second consecutive failure this year.
Just saw Starship 8 blow up from our flight @elonmusk @SpaceX pic.twitter.com/RyDzUtXzpo
— DegenZee (@Degen_Zee) March 7, 2025
However, the Super Heavy first-stage booster successfully returned to Earth as planned and was caught in mid-air by SpaceX’s chopsticks crane.
Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/JFeJSdnQ5x
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 6, 2025
“Unfortunately, this happened last time too, so we’ve got some practice now,” SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said on the live stream.
SpaceX provided color on what went wrong with Starship.
During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses.
We will review the data from today’s flight test to better…
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 7, 2025
And will correct it for the next flight.
With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability. We will conduct a thorough investigation, in coordination with the FAA, and implement corrective actions to make improvements on future Starship flight tests… pic.twitter.com/3ThPm0Yzky
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 7, 2025
Last Sunday, Firefly Aerospace’s “Blue Ghost” lander became the first private spacecraft to land on the Moon successfully.
Blue Ghost’s shadow seen on the Moon’s surface! We’ll continue to share images and updates throughout our surface operations. #BGM1 pic.twitter.com/iP7fWOSths
— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) March 2, 2025
America’s private space industry is heating up.
Let’s not forget: The US leads this race because of Musk’s SpaceX, years ahead of the rest of the world (Goldman went bull on Starlink satellite part suppliers last month).
The US plans to send astronauts to the lunar surface in a series of crewed missions by the end of the decade. Musk recently stated that the first Starship mission to Mars would be in two years.
What’s the vibe these days? Well… Make Space Great Again.
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