IT ALL SEEMS to have gone sideways—and for the second time. On March 6th an American firm called Intuitive Machines tried to land a robotic spacecraft called Athena near the Moon’s south pole. Things began promisingly enough. The lander fired up its engine on schedule, making its way down from lunar orbit. Even the loss of communications in the final stages of descent was to be expected. After a couple of nail-biting minutes, however, Intuitive announced that although Athena was on the lunar surface, its status was “unclear”.