SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission to Moon

On February 26, 2025, at 7:16 p.m. ET, SpaceX launched a new Falcon 9 rocket carrying Intuitive machines IM-2 mission to the Moon. The rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

That’s not it, the mission also carried other payloads including NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer, Astroforge’s Odin, and Epic Aerospace’s CHIMERA GEO 1.

The IM-2 mission has NASA science and technology instruments to Mons Mounton, a Moon’s plateau outside of 5 degrees of the South Pole, closer to the pole than any preceding lunar mission. Launched alongside the IM-2 mission, the Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft began its journey to lunar orbit to map water distribution and other forms of water on the Moon.

SpaceX Falcon 9 liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida (Source – SpaceX)

Information from Epic Aerospace revealed that CHIMERA GEO 1 is the company’s first OTV design for high-energy transfers. It boasts more over than 1.7 km/s of delta-v.

This was the ninth flight of the first booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-8, Polaris Dawn, CRS-31, Astranis: From One to Many, and four Starlink missions. After sending the mission to space, the first stage returned and landed vertically on a droneship.

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