CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A privately owned lunar lander touched down on the moon with a drill, drone and rovers for NASA and other customers Thursday, but quickly ran into trouble and may have fallen over.

Intuitive Machines said it was uncertain whether its Athena lander was upright near the moon’s south pole — standing 15 feet tall — or lying sideways like its first spacecraft from a year ago. Controllers rushed to turn off some of the lander’s equipment to conserve power while trying to determine what went wrong.

It was the second moon landing this week by a Texas company under NASA’s commercial lunar delivery program. Sunday’s touchdown was a complete success.

Intuitive Machines’ newest Athena lander dropped out of lunar orbit as planned. The hourlong descent appeared to go well until the final approach when the laser navigation system began acting up. It took a while for Mission Control to confirm touchdown.

“We’re on the surface,” reported mission Director and co-founder Tim Crain. A few minutes later, he repeated, “It looks like we’re down ... We are working to evaluate exactly what our orientation is on the surface.”

Hours after the landing, Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus there was conflicting data about how Athena landed and whether it was on its side. The lander was near the intended target site, but a sweep by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in the coming days will confirm its position and orientation, he said.

Launched last week, Athena was communicating with controllers more than 230,000 miles away and generating solar power, officials said. Mission managers worked to salvage the mission to see whether the drill can be turned on and the drone can be deployed to hop into a crater.

“Obviously, without knowing the exact orientation of the lander, it’s hard to say exactly what science we will and will not be able to do,” said NASA’s top science officer Nicky Fox.

Intuitive Machines last year put the U.S. back on the moon despite its lander tipping on its side.

On Sunday, Firefly Aerospace became the first private entity to achieve complete success with its Blue Ghost lunar lander, on the northeastern edge of the near side of the moon. A vacuum already has collected lunar dirt for analysis and a dust shield has shaken off the abrasive particles that cling to everything.

Intuitive Machines was aiming this time for a mountain plateau just 100 miles from the south pole, much closer than before. It reached the plateau, but Intuitive Machines was not sure how near it was to the precise targeted spot.

This week’s back-to-back moon landings are part of NASA’s commercial lunar delivery program.