Houston company readies for Moon landing
A Houston space company is slated to land on the Moon's surface Thursday.
Why it matters: Private, unmanned Moon landings are ramping up ahead of NASA's plan to put humans on the lunar surface this decade.
Plus, it's one more feather in our Space City cap.
Driving the news: Intuitive Machines engineers hope the IM-2 lander — nicknamed Athena — will safely touch down near the Moon's southern pole at 11:32am CST Thursday, the company says.
The equipment was rocketed by SpaceX Falcon 9 in late February and has been orbiting the Moon since earlier this week.
Flashback: The company landed its IM-1 vehicle on the Moon in 2024, but the machine tipped over upon touchdown, cutting the mission short.
The big picture: The IM-2 will help gather critical data for NASA's Artemis missions to the Moon.
The instruments onboard are part of a NASA program that utilizes public-private partnerships to lay the foundation for a sustained human lunar presence.
How to watch: The landing will be livestreamed on NASA+ and Intuitive Machines' YouTube channel.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
44 minutes ago
- Business Insider
From Elon Musk to Mark Zuckerberg, these are the high-profile billionaires who have founded schools
Several billionaires have started schools, to varying degrees of success. The ventures stretch from preschools to high schools, and many are founded by tech billionaires. Some are scheduled to close, and some have yet to open. Billionaires can seem everywhere these days, and the school system is no different. In recent years, a number of the country's wealthiest have founded schools, to varying degrees of success. As the education system is undergoing potentially profound changes under President Donald Trump 's second administration and some schools face privatization, billionaires have thrown their hats — and dollars — into the educational ring. From Elon Musk to Mark Zuckerberg, here are some of the billionaires who have founded schools in recent years. Elon Musk The Tesla CEO and the world's richest man has founded multiple schools. His latest, a private preschool called Ad Astra, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025, according to its website. Ad Astra is in Bastrop, Texas, close to Starbase, the city Musk founded near his SpaceX complex. The school is accepting applications for kids between the ages of three and nine. It's not a Montessori school but draws on similar principles, focusing on child-centered learning, according to the website. The curriculum focuses on STEM subjects — fitting since Ad Astra is Latin for "to the stars." According to the school's site, Ad Astra will subsidize tuition in the opening year and will later cost around as much as local private schools. A permit from the Texas Health and Human Services Department allowing Ad Astra to open in 2025 specified that it can enroll 21 students in its first year. The application materials, first reported by Bloomberg, said the school aims to expand into a STEM-focused university. None of the application materials to the state include Musk's name, but his foundation donated $100 million to the preschool, according to tax filings, as BI previously reported. In 2014, Musk opened a different school in California named Ad Astra for his children and the kids of SpaceX employees. That venture evolved into a largely online school called Astra Nova. According to its website, Astra Nova serves around 300 students between the ages of 10 and 14. Class offerings on the site range from special relativity to songwriting to ethical hacking. Mark Zuckerberg Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan created The Primary School in 2016 through their philanthropy, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The tuition-free private school said in April 2025 that it would close by the end of the 2026 academic year. The Primary School is a tuition-free private school with locations in East Palo Alto and East Bay, California. According to its website, it serves hundreds of students and works to more closely connect parents, teachers, and medical and mental health professionals. The school's website highlights diversity, equity, and inclusion, and its closure was announced at the same time some of Zuckerberg's other ventures rolled back DEI efforts. Meta dropped many of its DEI initiatives in January 2025, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative ended its own DEI efforts one month later. A message announcing the closure on the school website says that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will invest $50 million in surrounding communities in the coming years, including savings plans for soon-to-be former students and "transition specialists" for families. Zuckerberg was worth $235.6 billion at the time of writing, according to Forbes. Jeff Bezos Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos founded a whole network of preschools called Bezos Academy. He started the schools through the Bezos Day One Fund, and the first location opened in 2020. Bezos Academy runs "Montessori-inspired preschools in under-resourced communities," according to its website. Bezos attended a Montessori school himself. The schools are tuition-free and serve children between the ages of three and five. The website lists schools in Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, Texas, and Washington. Bezos was worth $226.8 billion at the time of writing, according to Forbes. Oprah Winfrey Oprah Winfrey opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, a boarding school in South Africa, in 2007. More than 525 girls have graduated, according to the Oprah Foundation website. The school serves students from 8th to 12th grade and has a 1% acceptance rate, per the Oprah Foundation. Oprah posted on Instagram about attending graduation at the school in 2024, saying in the caption that she had been to 22 of the ceremonies. Oprah was worth $3.1 billion at the time of writing, according to Forbes. LeBron James Los Angeles Lakers star Lebron James founded a school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, in 2018, in partnership with the local public school system. The LeBron James Family Foundation backed the I Promise School, which is "dedicated to those students who are already falling behind and in danger of falling through the cracks," according to its website. As a public school, I Promise is funded by the Akron Public Schools district, but receives addition funds from James' foundation, according to Case Western University. It serves students between first and eighth grade and provides wraparound services, including a longer school day. James was worth $1.2 billion at the time of writing, according to Forbes. Laurene Powell Jobs Unlike the other billionaires on this list, investor Laurene Powell Jobs hasn't started one individual school but an independent nonprofit that distributes money to high schools across the country. According to its website, XQ Institute is "rethinking high school " and is based on the idea that the rapidly changing workplace and technological world demand a new educational approach. Powell Jobs, widow of Steve Jobs, co-founded XQ Institute in 2015. Powell Jobs' organization, the Emerson Collective, has invested $300 million in XQ Institute, which has also granted grants to schools across the country. However, as BI previously reported, XQ Institute has encountered some controversies over its data and efficacy in recent years. Powell Jobs was worth $13.9 billion at the time of writing, according to Forbes.
Forbes
3 hours ago
- Forbes
As SpaceX Explodes Again, Honda Successfully Launches Reusable Rocket
Honda's reusable rocket blasts off in northern Japan. The latest SpaceX rocket explosion is the fourth failure in a row for the company's embattled CEO and Tesla boss Elon Musk as he tries to rebuild his brand after controversial political aspirations. Meanwhile, Honda—not meaning to shine a light of SpaceX problems—has just successfully conducted a launch and landing test of its experimental reusable rocket in northern Japan. Honda's rocket climbed to 890 feet before landing just 15 inches away from where it took off. Honda's rocket flew for 57 seconds and then landed Honda is well-known in industry circles as one of the few carmakers who produces a multitude of non-car products including motorcycles, ATVs, power equipment such as generators, lawnmowers, outboard motors and snowploughs, the HondaJet and robots such as ASIMO. And now it's entered rocket R&D in earnest. At Honda's test facility in Taiki Town located in Hokkaido, Japan's northern-most island, the company launched a reusable rocket that flew for almost a minute to an altitude of 890 feet and then landed with pinpoint accuracy just 15 inches from where it took off, according to Honda. The rocket weighs 2800 lbs which equates to a small car. Developed in-house by Honda R&D Company, the rocket—which weighs 2800 lbs or around the same weight as a small car—shot up vertically, blasting off using its four legs from the company's test site in the northern island of Hokkaido. Honda says its Hokkaido facility 'has been developing itself as a 'space town' through the joint efforts of public and private sectors,' including the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The 21-foot high rocket, ascended for 57 seconds before landing around 15 inches from the target touchdown point using its four retractable legs that also aided in its take-off. Honda first revealed its goal to go into space in late 2021. But while the carmaker has been tight-lipped about its R&D progress, it is using existing technology from other areas, such as automated driving systems, to assist in the development of its first reusable rocket. The company says that the reason for developing its own launch system is the need for more satellites that will potentially benefit its other businesses. According to Honda, its rocket research is still in its infancy, and no decisions have yet been made on potential commercialization of these rocket technologies. The company has the ambitious goal to enable a suborbital launch by 2029 but success here will require significant testing and perhaps a few failures. A suborbital flight – upwards of 62 miles above sea level – would be a significant achievement for Honda, even though that is not far enough to put a satellite into orbit. It will be interesting to see if Honda goes all the way, and ends up competing with other private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin that are capable of conducting orbital flights.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Unsung women behind moon landing celebrated in art
More than a thousand unsung women whose circuits helped man land on the moon have inspired two Kent artists to celebrate the historic moment of 1969. The work is based on the female Navajo weavers who were employed for their perceived dexterity to make microchips in New Mexico in the sixties, which were used by NASA in the Apollo Guidance Computer. Moon Landing is by weaver Margo Selby and composer Helen Caddick is a 16m (52ft) handwoven textile suspended from The Trinity Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral, accompanied by an original score for six strings. The tapestry is described as a celebration of the crossover of mathematical patterns, tone and rhythm found in weaving and music and will remain in the chapel until 31 August. Ms Caddick said she was inspired by a weaving tool to compose music about space exploration. She said: "I had gone to see Margo weave and I noticed that she used a shuttle to move the thread along and that made me start to think about space." She added that when she had saw documentaries or films about the space shuttle, she noticed there was an "indicator light flashing in the cabin". "So so I took the rhythm of that to mirror in the harp part," she said. In turn, Ms Selby translated the musician's work into textile art. The textile artist said: "With these incredible carvings and shapes, to see my contemporary work hanging alongside them is truly thrilling." Some 1,200 indigenous people - mostly women - were employed to work at a Fairchild Semiconductor factory in Shiprock, New Mexico, from 1965, during the United States' race to the moon. The manufacturer was tasked with building complicated microchips for NASA's Apollo Guidance Computer, which was integral to space missions. A contemporary brochure from Fairchild compared the intricate work creating elaborate microchips to weaving the Navajo population's traditional tapestries. However, these women who contributed to the space race were largely overlooked in their time. The Dean of Canterbury Cathedral David Monteith said the chapel was excited to celebrate the work of art. "In life sometimes things can become a bit grey scale but this is such an assault of colour that it gladdens the heart and that's such a gift," he said. Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@ or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250. Mars art installation on display at cathedral Girl, 8, uses dad's ham radio to chat to astronaut Canterbury Cathedral
