The search for water on the moon is about to take a massive leap into new territory as NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer orbiter and the latest Intuitive Machines lunar lander get ready to launch. These missions — riding together on the same SpaceX Falcon9 rocket — both aim to answer key questions about the presence of water on the moon, which has become a top priority in space exploration.
The launch is scheduled for the evening of the Feb. 26, 2025 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. While the Lunar Trailblazer will continually orbit the moon as it charts sources of water from afar, the Intuitive Machines lander (named “Athena”) will touch down on the moon’s south pole and deploy an instrument to drill through the surface and measure water ice and gases.
Following its launch, the Lunar Trailblazer — which is a small satellite — will take a path ...
