The IM-2 mission launch on 26 February 2025 will see SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket deliver the Athena lander to the Moon’s surface. The launch is part of a growing hectic year for lunar missions, following earlier successful missions and paving the way to a greater understanding of the Moon. The mission follows a series of successful lunar missions in the past and is just one of the many desperate events this year for missions to the lunar surface. SpaceX also enabled the launch of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander and Japan’s ispace Resilience mission in early January 2025. All these missions fall under a global campaign to explore the Moon, find out its resources, and pave the way for human settlement. These Moon missions are signs of increased interest and investment in lunar exploration with long-term objectives in the form of returning astronauts to the moon and, eventually, Mars. The central mandate of IM-1 is data gathering for the purposes of informing future lunar missions. The location of Cape Canaveral has a suitable position that acts as a safe and strategic place to launch moon missions.
