head of NASA's space science mission directorate. Athena is Intuitive Machines' second CLPS-sponsored lunar lander. The company's first lander, Odysseus, touched down on the moon on Feb. 22, 2024.

NASA officials this week said recent calculations show a significantly smaller risk than previously believed that Earth could be annihilated in 2032 as a result of being hit by Asteroid 2024 YR4.

While things may not have gone as planned for an immediate 2024 launch, this second lunar mission from NASA and Intuitive Machines may be the one to make history yet again.

More than 50 years passed between the last Apollo mission and the United States' return to the lunar surface, when the first private lander touched down last February 2024. Now, starting Sunday ...