If successful, Athena's landing will be the second by a private American company this year. Firefly Aerospace was the first to achieve this milestone on March 2. Its Blue Ghost lander successfully touched down near the Mare Crisium region on the near side of the Moon and has begun its two-weeks-long surface operations.

Firefly Aerospace’s successful touchdown marks a new era of frequent commercial trips to the Moon, paving the way for a long-term human presence on the lunar surface. Before we get too ahead of ourselves, however, we’ve got the ongoing mission to attend to.

Intuitive Machines' 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.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander aced a touchdown on the moon Sunday to deliver experiments and supplies for NASA.

More than fifty years passed between the last Apollo mission and the United States' return to the lunar surface, when the first-ever private lander touched down last February.

A US company successfully landed its spacecraft on the Moon on Sunday, marking only the second private mission to achieve the milestone -- and the first to do so upright.