Originally published 2/27/2025. Last revised 2/27/2025.
Last updated
On February 26, at approx. 7:16 PM EST at Launch Complex 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, lift off was achieved for the joint NASA/LUNR IM-2/Prime-1 mission with the mission destination of the Shackleton Connecting Ridge, near the Shackleton Crater, near the South Pole of the Moon. In total, Athena reached its intended orbit approximately 44 minutes after launch and established first communication by itself at 8:17 PM EST, just one hour after launch. This mission is to serve as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, a key part of the Artemis Program.
After the initial launch, where the SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 vehicle performed flawlessly in both delivering the Athena Lander out of the atmosphere and landing back on the mission pad, the Athena Lander established a stable attitude, solar charging, and gained and maintained good radio communications contact with the mission operations center in Houston. The Athena Lander, since it's last update, has been stated that it is in excellent health.
The Athena Lander is targeting a series of main engine firings to refine its trajectory ahead of lunar orbit insertion on March 3rd and its lunar landing opportunity on March 6th. From here, upon successful touchdown and verification of system and equipment health, the Athena Lander and equipment will be deployed for roughly a 10-day period in which it is to conduct research and transmit back data before entering a lunar night, where equipment will lose power due to the lack of an energy source (i.e. the Sun on their solar panels that they use).
For those that missed the livestream or haven't seen it yet, I've gone ahead and attached a variety of screenshots from across the entire IM-2 mission livestream, hosted on NASA+. These images range from pre-launch procedures to the Athena Lander flying to her destination. If interested in watching the livestream, I've pasted a direct link to it, which is available on YouTube, directly below.
This launch was my first launch that I have ever witnessed (granted it was entirely online as I am no where near any of the U.S.'s launch complexes). To say it was breathtaking is such an understatement, in terms of its beauty and its marvel through the science that helped bring it to life.
We're seeing some rough times currently with regards to the stock but its important to remember a couple of things:
Warrants are still live. These expire and become worthless on March 6th. In turn for these warrants activating, any pending sense of dilution that the company might've chosen in the future should be fended off - this was absolutely the best decision that LUNR could've done from a business/economic perspective, especially as a company that holds little to no debt and is not profitable as of yet.
We're in a first-of-its-kind political period - there are many unknowns that the Trump Administration brings that hasn't been seen before. The market is reacting violently (as seen by all the major ETF's, Crypto, and the large majority of individual stocks). Tariffs and other fears are beginning and there's no telling when they'll stop and the market will let up.
Personally, I'm planning on holding through all this with all my holdings, whether it be ETF's or my individual plays, such as 200 shares and $19 3/28 call on $LUNR.
I'm big on "Time in the market and not timing the market" and plan on doing just that - in here for the long haul. Things will be okay, the space sector has yet to see any sort of negatives with regards to DOGE (as NASA remains untouched from layoffs and contracts unaffected, a topic that was talked about largely when DOGE came) or other factors.
The United States is still, to this day, the only country to have commercial countries reach the lunar surface.
