For the second time in a week, a privately built U.S. spacecraft aims to land on the moon. The robotic lander was developed by the company Intuitive Machines.

The 6.6-foot-tall lander, funded by NASA as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, is carrying a suite of instruments and experiments for the space agency as NASA prepares to establish a permanent presence on the moon. This includes radiation-tolerant computing tests and sampling of the lunar regolith.

A private US company says it has landed a spacecraft close to the Moon's South Pole but fears the machine is not upright. The Athena spacecraft is communicating with Earth, but is not in the "correct attitude", Intuitive Machines chief executive said in a press conference.