*

Intuitive Machines Athena lander launches on SpaceX rocket

*

Instruments onboard to study moon's surface material

(Updates paragraphs 1 and 2 to reflect launch)

By Joey Roulette

DENVER, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Intuitive Machines' ( LUNR ) second

moon lander was launched on Wednesday atop a SpaceX rocket,

setting off for the latest private U.S. moonshot one year after

the company's first attempt ended early with a lopsided landing.

The six-legged lander, named Athena and roughly as tall as a

giraffe, will spend about a week heading toward the moon, where

on March 6 it will attempt to land on Mons Mouton, a flat-topped

mountain some 100 miles (160 km) from the lunar south pole.

The lander is loaded with scientific instruments - mostly

customer payloads - including a "hopper" rover built by

Intuitive Machines ( LUNR ) that will deploy from the lander after

touchdown and hop around the lunar terrain as a mobility test.

"This mission is much more complex than our first mission,"

Trent Martin, Intuitive Machines' ( LUNR ) senior vice president of

spacecraft, said in an interview.

"The most critical piece," Martin said, is "making sure that

we land upright so that we can get on to the science and

technology demonstrations that we need to do on the surface of

the moon."

After the liftoff, Intuitive Machines' ( LUNR ) Athena lander became

the third spacecraft actively heading for the moon's surface.

Firefly's Blue Ghost lander is due for its first landing attempt

on Sunday, followed by a lander from Japan's ispace that will

make its touchdown attempt in the coming months.

Early last year, the company's first lander, named Odysseus,

made it farther than any other private company without smashing

on the moon's surface, a feat celebrated by NASA. But its hard

touchdown - descending about six times faster than planned -

broke a lander leg and caused it to topple over, dooming many of

its onboard experiments.

With Athena, engineers made improvements to the lander's

laser altimeter that was partially to blame for the last

moonshot's hard landing.

The company seems confident this time around, but with

complex spacecraft and the moon's unforgiving environment,

success isn't guaranteed.

"We definitely have fixed the laser altimeter this time, and

that part will work," Martin said. "But you never know what that

other thing is that's going to jump up and bite you."

Other onboard payloads include a rover built by Japan's

Dymon Co. Ltd and technology from Nokia to test 4G

communications between spacecraft on the moon. The first data

center from startup Lonestar Data Holdings is also on the

lander.

And a pair of NASA instruments, also onboard, will drill

three feet into the moon's surface to examine its composition

for trace amounts of ice or other resources that could

potentially be exploited for fuel in future moon missions.

That research could be crucial for future lunar astronaut

missions drawn up by NASA's Artemis program, the flagship U.S.

moon effort that counts Intuitive Machines' ( LUNR ) landers, and others

from companies such as Firefly Aerospace and Astrobotic, as

precursor expeditions ahead of more risky crewed missions.

Athena's landing attempt is expected March 6, and its

mission on the surface would last ten days. NASA has other moon

missions in work and plans to use SpaceX's Starship to return

humans to the lunar surface by around 2027.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, an influential Trump administration

ally, as well as President Donald Trump himself have suggested

focusing on Mars and less on the moon, stirring anxiety and

uncertainty in a burgeoning industry that has placed heavy bets

on the moon.

Martin said Intuitive Machines ( LUNR ) was bracing for any potential

changes to the U.S. space program by Trump and suggested the

company could adapt to Mars missions if necessary.

"Obviously you have to play the game that is in front of

you," Martin said. "And as a company, we're not overlooking

those things."