NASA has launched a project to land humans on the Moon for the first time in 54 years
- NASA is prepping for first human visit to the Moon in 54 years
- It launched its IM-2 mission this week
- Second lunar lander, Athena, set off from Kennedy Space Center
Published on Feb 28, 2025 at 5:36 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Mar 03, 2025 at 9:17 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
NASA is prepping for its first human visit to the moon in 54 years.
It teamed up with space exploration company, Intuitive Machines to launch its IM-2 mission on Wednesday.
The second lunar lander, Athena was aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that blasted off from Kennedy Space Center.
It’s all part of a wider project to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, and technological advancement, and to ‘learn how to live and work on another world’.
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Why NASA sent Athena to the Moon
Athena is scheduled to land near the Moon’s south pole on March 6, 2025.
The IM-2 mission involves searching for lunar water ice using a robotic hopper named ‘Grace’ and an ice-mining drill.
Groundbreaking tech will allow a commercial rover named ‘Mapp’ developed by Lunar Outpost will deploy a temperature-monitoring vehicle.
What’s more, another part of the mission sees Nokia testing a lunar cellular network on the Moon.
The short-lived mission of the Odysseus Nova-C lunar lander in February 2024 was commented on by Intuitive Machines’ senior vice president of space systems, Trent Martin via Space.com.
“We ended up on our side, and we weren’t able to use our large, high-gain antenna to send data back to the Earth,” he said.
“This time, hopefully, we land in a more precise position.”
The Artemis III mission
The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services CLPS program and Artemis III, Athena joins Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost and Japan’s ispace RESILIENCE, making this a historic moment.
It’s the first time that three landers have been en route to the Moon simultaneously.
IM-2 is aiming for a more precise landing than IM-1’s Odysseus lander, which lost power due to an imperfect landing position.
The mission will strengthen NASA’s commercial space efforts and contribute to its Artemis III program.
Its aim to return humans to the Moon – and its new timezone – is planned no earlier than mid-2027 due to issues with the heat shield and life support systems on its Orion craft.
All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
