A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Nova-C lander for the IM-1 mission blasts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 1:05 am. EDT on February 15, 2024 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Paul Hennessy | Anadolu | Getty Images
based in Texas Intuitive machines The inaugural lunar mission launched early Thursday morning, heading toward the first U.S. lunar landing in more than 50 years.
Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C aircraft launched from Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, kicking off the IM-1 mission.
“This is a deeply humbling moment for all of us at Intuitive Machines. The opportunity to return the United States to the moon for the first time since 1972 is an engineering feat that demands a hunger for exploration,” said Intuitive Machines vice president of space systems Trent Martin during a press conference.
Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander “Odysseus” is deployed from the upper stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to launch the IM-1 mission.
NASA Television
The IM-1 lander, named “Odysseus” after the mythological Greek hero, is carrying 12 government and commercial payloads — six of which are for NASA under a $118 million contract.
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NASA leadership stressed before launch that “IM-1 is an Intuitive Engine mission, not a NASA mission.” But it marks the second mission under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which aims to deliver scientific projects and cargo to the moon with increasing regularity in support of the agency’s Artemis crew program.
The agency views the CLPS missions as “a learning experience,” NASA’s associate associate for exploration in the science mission directorate, Joel Kearns, told reporters before the launch.
“The success of any landing is never guaranteed,” Kearns said. “NASA is using CLPS to conduct our scientific research and technology testing on the lunar surface and to develop a commercial community of robotic landing service providers for Artemis.”
Intuitive Machines outlined 16 milestones it hopes to achieve with IM-1, with a successful landing representing the final step. So far, the company has confirmed that the IM-1 has achieved three of these milestones – launch, separation from the rocket and autonomous commissioning.
In an update eight hours after launch, Intuitive said the IM-1 spacecraft was in a stable position with its solar batteries charging and had established contact with the company’s mission control in Houston.
The IM-1 lander is expected to spend about eight days traveling on the moon before landing on the surface on February 22. The mission is targeting the “Malapert A” crater, about 300 kilometers from the Moon’s south pole. After landing, Intuitive Machines aims to operate Odysseus on the surface for up to seven days.
Intuitive Machines stock rose in trading from Wednesday’s close to $4.98 a share. That’s about half the price it was when the company’s stock debuted in February 2023 on the Nasdaq after a SPAC merger.
Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander is on display at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
NASA
Last month, Japan became the fifth country to land on the moon, following Russia — then the Soviet Union — the US, China and India.
Governments and private companies have made more than 50 attempts to land on the moon with mixed success since the first attempts in the early 1960s, and the track record has remained sketchy even in modern times.
Last year, the Japanese company ispace made its first attempt to land on the moon, but the spacecraft crashed in the final moments. Last month, the American company Astrobotic carried out its first mission to the moon from the ground, but ran into problems shortly after the launch. The flight aborted and failed to make a landing attempt on the Moon.
Although Astrobotic’s recent effort did not fail, Kearns said NASA was “really pleased with how open and transparent” the company was about the mission and its lessons from it.
“[Astrobotic] he had a virtual meeting with all the other CLPS companies, to let the other CLPS companies know what they found,” Kearns said.
More efforts are on the way. NASA expects US companies to launch additional missions this year, while China plans to launch another lunar lander in May.