Private lunar lander touches down on Moon’s south pole

A privately owned lunar lander has touched down near the Moon’s south pole, but as the minutes ticked by, flight controllers could not confirm its condition or whether it was even upright.

The last time Intuitive Machines landed a spacecraft on the Moon, a year ago, it ended up sideways.

The company’s newest Athena lander dropped out of lunar orbit as planned, carrying an ice drill, a drone and two rovers.

The hour-long descent appeared to go well, but it took a while for mission control to confirm the touchdown.

“It looks like we’re down”,” said mission director and co-founder Tim Crain. “We are working to evaluate exactly what our orientation is on the surface.”

Athena was communicating with controllers and generating solar power, officials said.

But 20 minutes after touchdown, Mr Crain was still unable to confirm if everything was OK with the lander.

Nasa and Intuitive Machines abruptly ended their live landing webcast, promising more updates at a news conference later in the afternoon.

“OK team, keep working the problem,” Mr Crain reported.

Intuitive Machines last year put the US back on the moon despite its lander tipping on its side.

Another US company, Firefly Aerospace, on Sunday became the first to achieve complete success with its commercial lunar lander.

A vacuum has already collected lunar dirt for analysis and a dust shield has shaken off the abrasive particles that cling to everything.