Moonward Ho!

Intuitive Machines has announced jointly with SpaceX that liftoff of the IM-1 lunar mission is targeted for a multi-day launch window opening 12 January 2024.

Intuitive Machines co-founder, president, and CEO Steve Altemus stated: “As previously announced, Intuitive Machines completed its lunar lander in September, and the entire company is looking forward to our upcoming launch. There are inherent challenges of lunar missions; schedule changes and mission adjustments are a natural consequence of pioneering lunar exploration. Receiving a launch window and the required approvals to fly is a remarkable achievement, and the schedule adjustment is a small price to pay for making history.”

The Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission will be the company’s first attempted lunar landing as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, a key facet of the space agency’s Artemis lunar exploration efforts. The science and technology payloads sent to the Moon’s surface as part of CLPS are intended to lay the foundation for human lunar missions and a sustainable human presence on the Moon’s surface.

In the event of unfavorable launch conditions, backup departure windows will be determined based on the lunar blackout window and other factors.

On 13 July 2023, Intuitive Machines announced it had successfully conducted a test run of its Nova-C lunar lander. The complete-spacecraft test run verified the Nova-C lander’s flight software, avionics, liquid oxygen and liquid methane loading, high-pressure helium system performance, propulsion system functionality, and culminated in a hot-firing of the lander’s main engine.

Conducted at Intuitive Machines’s Small Vehicle Engine Verification Facility at the Houston Spaceport, the complete-spacecraft test run marked the culmination of a series of tests that collectively heralded the Nova-C lander’s readiness for space-flight.

Comprehensive testing of Intuitive Machines’s Nova-C lunar lander—to include the powering-up and protracted operation of the entirety of the spacecraft’s systems—was an essential step in the process of verifying the lander performs to expectations. The whole of the lander’s constituent systems underwent extensive integrated functional testing in preparation for the fully-integrated performance test.

NASA has identified numerous sites in the vicinity of the lunar south pole at which it may land its Artemis III mission. The geography and geology of the lunar south pole region hold the promise of unprecedented deep-space scientific discoveries—such as locating water ice on Earth’s moon. Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander is slated to be the first spacecraft to land on the Moon’s South Pole Region.

Intuitive Machines is a diversified space company focused on space exploration. Intuitive Machines’ products and services are offered through its four business units: Lunar Access Services, Orbital Services, Lunar Data Services, and Space Products and Infrastructure.

FMI: www.intuitivemachines.com