SpaceX launched its second lunar mission of 2025, just over a month after flying the Firefly Blue Ghost and HAKUTO-R M2 Resilience landers to the Moon atop a single Falcon 9. Another Falcon 9, this time with the Intuitive Machines IM-2 NOVA-C lander on board, launched successfully from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 7:16 PM EST (00:16 UTC Thursday, Feb. 27) during an instantaneous launch window.
The Falcon 9 booster, B1083-9, flew on an eastward trajectory out of the Cape. The booster conducted a safe landing on SpaceX’s autonomous droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic while the second stage continued to its parking orbit. Alongside the IM-2 lander were three additional secondary payloads, also contracted to be flown by Intuitive Machines, on an ESPA ring below the NOVA-C lander.