A private spacecraft and a NASA satellite are en route to the Moon, an asteroid impact risk has been ruled out, Starship is preparing for another test flight, and Katy Perry is set to journey to the edge of space. This Week in Space.
Ice and Communication on the Moon
The year 2025 is poised to mark a major milestone in lunar exploration. Following two uncrewed spacecraft launched earlier this year, a third mission was sent to the Moon last week by Intuitive Machines. The company, which made history last year by landing the first private spacecraft on the lunar surface, launched its IM-2 lander, Athena, on Wednesday night from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. After reaching Earth's orbit, a second-stage engine burn set the lander on its trajectory toward the Moon
The lander is scheduled to touch down on Thursday, March 6, at Mount Mouton, a large plateau not far from the Moon's south pole. This region has drawn significant scientific interest due to the potential presence of frozen water beneath the surface and in nearby craters. Such water could be used not only for drinking and irrigation but also for producing oxygen and hydrogen. The lander's primary scientific payload is a NASA experiment featuring a drill capable of reaching a depth of one meter, along with an instrument designed to analyze volatile compounds. The goal is to detect subsurface ice and possibly other valuable materials.
NASA is funding the mission under the CLPS program, which supports private uncrewed lunar missions carrying scientific instruments and experiments for the space agency. These missions contribute to the research infrastructure for the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon by the end of the decade. "We’re looking to show that we can find what resources already exist on the moon for a sustained human presence," said NASA Associate Administrator for Science, Nicky Fox, ahead of the launch. She emphasized that Mount Mouton is a "scientifically strategic location" because its elevated terrain ensures that some crater floors remain permanently shadowed, increasing the likelihood of finding ice. "We hope that that’s going to provide opportunities for extraordinary science in extraordinary places," she added.
Another notable payload aboard the lander is Micro-Nova, a rocket-powered drone designed to detach from the lander and conduct several independent flights over the lunar surface. It can reach altitudes of up to 100 meters and travel tens to hundreds of meters. This drone, or hopper, can carry up to 10 kilograms of cargo and access challenging locations, such as the floors of steep and narrow craters. The lander also carries miniature rovers, and Intuitive Machines plans to test, for the first time on the Moon, a Nokia-built communication network linking the lander, the drone, and the rovers.
Designed to drill into the lunar soil and search for signs of ice near the Moon’s south pole. An illustration of the Athena lander on the lunar surface, with the rocket-powered drone hovering nearby. Source: Intuitive Machines
Water from Above
The SpaceX launch also carried an additional NASA payload to the Moon—a small satellite about the size of a dishwasher, designed to orbit the Moon and map its water deposits. Named Lunar Trailblazer, the satellite is equipped with a camera and an infrared spectrometer, which will detect surface ice deposits based on their radiation reflectivity, creating precise maps of ice-rich regions. It is set to enter a polar orbit around the Moon and operate for approximately two years, allowing scientists to track ice deposits over time and observe any changes in their distribution.
Unlike Intuitive Machines' lunar lander, NASA’s satellite has a much smaller propulsion system. As a result, it is following a longer, fuel-efficient trajectory and is expected to reach lunar orbit in about four months.
Already in lunar orbit is Blue Ghost, a lander from Firefly Aerospace, which was launched last month and is scheduled to attempt a landing on Sunday in Mare Crisium ("Sea of Crises"), just north of the lunar equator on the near side of the Moon. This lander also carries a suite of scientific instruments and experiments, many of them NASA-funded under the CLPS program, with a primary focus on studying lunar dust and its effects.
Mapping lunar ice deposits and monitoring their changes. An illustration of the Trailblazer satellite in space. Source: Lockheed Martin Space
Mining Rare Metals from Asteroids
Alongside the two lunar-bound spacecraft, the same Falcon 9 rocket also carried a small spacecraft from a private company aiming to succeed where others have failed: demonstrating the economic viability of asteroid mining. Developed by AstroForge, the Odin spacecraft is set to travel to the asteroid 2022 OB5, capture close-up images, and assess whether its metal content aligns with the company’s expectations.
The asteroid, approximately 100 meters in diameter, follows a Sun-centered orbit similar to Earth's. Telescope observations suggest it may be an M-type asteroid, primarily composed of metal. Such asteroids are thought to consist mainly of iron and nickel but may also contain significant amounts of platinum-group metals, including osmium, iridium, and palladium—elements widely used in electronics and various industries. If 2022 OB5 is predominantly metallic, it could hold hundreds of tons of platinum and related metals. Should commercial companies develop a cost-effective method to extract and transport these valuable resources to Earth, they could see substantial profits—at least until increased competition drives prices down.
However, that remains a significant uncertainty. Over the past few decades, several companies have proposed ambitious asteroid mining ventures, yet none have successfully sent a spacecraft to an asteroid. AstroForge itself has faced setbacks: in April 2023, it launched its first spacecraft to test in-space metal processing, but the mission failed, and the spacecraft burned up in Earth's atmosphere. Despite this, the company secured enough funding for the current mission and claims that this spacecraft has been improved, incorporating components developed in-house. Roughly the size of a microwave oven, Odin is expected to reach the asteroid after a ten-month journey and capture high-resolution images. These observations could confirm whether the asteroid is indeed metal-rich. The spacecraft is also designed to estimate the asteroid’s mass by measuring its gravitational influence, providing valuable insight into its internal composition.
AstroForge plans to launch another mission in the coming years—a larger spacecraft designed to land on an asteroid, possibly 2022 OB5 itself, if it proves to be as metal-rich as expected, to test mining technologies.
Expected to fly past the asteroid after ten months in space. The Odin spacecraft (bottom right) aboard the Falcon 9 rocket, beneath the Intuitive Machines lunar lander and the Trailblazer satellite. Credit: SpaceX
Asteroid Impact Risk: Nearly Zero
While asteroid 2022 OB5 remains a promising target, another asteroid has proven to be far less of a threat than initially feared. Scientists monitoring 2024 YR4, once considered a potential collision risk for Earth in 2032, announced last week that its impact probability has plummeted to just 0.005%—or 1 in 20,000—far below the 1-in-1,000 threshold considered the minimum level of concern.
Discovered in December last year, 2024 YR4 initially raised alarms when preliminary trajectory calculations suggested a possible Earth impact in December 2032. At one point, its estimated impact probability reached 3%, the highest ever calculated for an asteroid. However, as experts anticipated, additional observations and more precise measurements gradually reduced this probability. Following further observations last week, researchers at NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) confirmed that the collision risk is now close to zero. The European Space Agency's tracking center reached a similar conclusion, leading to the asteroid’s reclassification to zero on the Torino Scale—indicating it poses no threat to Earth.
However, current calculations still suggest a small chance that the asteroid could impact the Moon. Estimated to be between 40 and 90 meters in size, 2024 YR4 could have caused significant localized destruction had it struck Earth—potentially enough to devastate an entire city.
No threat to Earth—at least for now. An illustration of asteroid 2024 YR4.| Source: ESA
Starship Returns
SpaceX is set to conduct the eighth test flight of its Starship spacecraft this week. The company announced at the end of the week that the test has been postponed to last Monday, without specifying the reason for the delay.
The upcoming flight is expected to follow a profile similar to that of the seventh test flight in January, which ended with the spacecraft exploding over the Caribbean Sea. However, SpaceX successfully landed the booster rocket on the launch tower for the second time, using its specialized support arms to catch it. The spacecraft itself was intended to deploy dummy satellites in space before executing a controlled landing maneuver over the ocean, east of Australia.
While there have been reports in recent weeks suggesting that SpaceX might attempt to land Starship on the launch tower, this maneuver appears to be beyond the company’s current plans. For a tower landing to be feasible, Starship would need to enter Earth’s orbit—something SpaceX has yet to achieve. All Starship test flights so far have been suborbital, meaning that while the spacecraft has reached space, its trajectory has ensured a free-fall return to Earth. Achieving orbital flight would require firing the engines in space to increase velocity, followed by a retrograde burn to enable a controlled reentry into the atmosphere.
Last time, it ended like this. Starship debris burns up in the atmosphere over the Turks and Caicos Islands.| Source: Screenshot from Dean Olson's X account
Katy in Space
American singer Katy Perry is set to journey to the edge of space this spring on a Blue Origin space tourism flight featuring an all-female crew. According to the company’s announcement, the mission will be led by Lauren Sánchez, partner of billionaire Jeff Bezos, the owner of Blue Origin. The other passengers will include Aisha Bowe, CEO of STEMboard and a former NASA scientist, Kerianne Flynn, a film producer, Gayle King, a television host, and Amanda Nguyen, a space scientist.
Blue Origin’s space tourism flights are conducted using the New Shepard rocket, launched from the company’s Texas spaceport. The rocket carries the spacecraft to an altitude of approximately 100 kilometers before separating and executing a controlled vertical landing. Meanwhile, passengers—this time, an all-female crew—experience a few minutes of weightlessness before the spacecraft begins its descent. The capsule lands with the aid of parachutes, touching down less than 15 minutes after launch. Blue Origin has carried out ten such space tourism missions, the latest of which took place this week.
If the mission proceeds as planned, it will be the first spaceflight crewed entirely by women—aside from the historic solo flight of Valentina Tereshkova, who became the first woman in space when she flew alone aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963.
Will she reach the edge of space on the first all-female mission? Singer Katy Perry performing in Rio de Janeiro. Credit: A. Paes, Shutterstock