By Joey Roulette and Akash Sriram WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Intuitive Machines' second moon landing appears to have suffered the same fate as the company's first attempt last year, with issues involving a laser range finder causing landing problems that resulted in the Athena lander falling on its side on the lunar surface,

IM-2 is part of a new wave of private lunar exploration. For example, Firefly Aerospace successfully put its Blue Ghost lander down in the Mare Crisium ("Sea of Crises") region of the moon's northern hemisphere just this past Sunday (March 2).

Commercial company Intuitive Machines is attempting to land a probe near the lunar south pole. If successful, it will be the second time a private company has landed on the moon in less than a week.