Mission controllers were able to confirm that Athena lunar lander made it to the moon, but they do not know the status of the spacecraft.

A privately owned lunar lander has touched down near the moon's south pole. But flight controllers in Texas fear it may have fallen over.

IM-2 is part of a new wave of private lunar exploration. For example, Firefly Aerospace successfully put its Blue Ghost lander down in the Mare Crisium ("Sea of Crises") region of the moon's northern hemisphere just this past Sunday (March 2).