The Athena lander, built by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines, could be the second commercial spacecraft to land on the moon this week.

History is set to be made on the Moon again this week, with Intuitive Machines' IM-2 mission Nova-C class lunar lander Athena scheduled to land there at 12:32pm ET on Thursday. The big picture: Intuitive Machines has partnered with Lunar Outpost to roll out the first commercial rover on the Moon and with Finnish multinational tech firm Nokia to deliver the first cellular network on Earth's only natural satellite.

Intuitive Machines sent final commands to its uncrewed Athena spacecraft on Thursday as it closed in on a landing spot near the moon's south pole, the company's second attempt to score a clean touchdown after making a lopsided landing last year.