Intuitive Machines is an American space exploration company that provides lunar surface access, payload delivery, and data transmission services. As a NASA CLPS partner, they design and build lunar landers like Nova-C to transport payloads to the Moon. Their customers include NASA, for whom they deliver science instruments and technology demonstrations as part of the Artemis program, and they are developing lunar data relay satellites. Intuitive Machines aims to commercialize the Moon through infrastructure and services.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
The first successful commercial lunar landing on 2024-02-22 used Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus NOVA-C lander that included the Lonestar Data payload.
Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus stated that the lander tipped because one of its landing legs likely hit the surface first during descent.
Intuitive Machines confirmed a signal from the lander about 15 minutes after its intended landing time.
The lunar delivery by Intuitive Machines is part of NASA's Artemis campaign, which aims to send astronauts to the Moon to search for water and other resources later this decade.
Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander, named Odysseus, attempted a landing on the Moon during the IM-1 mission.
At a 2024-02-23 briefing, Intuitive Machines was working to reconfigure antennas to increase Odysseus downlink rates.
Intuitive Machines expected flight controllers to continue communications with Odysseus until 2024-02-27 based on Earth–Moon positioning.
Intuitive Machines encountered a sensor issue with their navigation system prior to landing and utilized NASA's guidance system for assistance.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated Intuitive Machines for the successful landing of the Odysseus lander.
Intuitive Machines planned to build additional Nova-C landers for future missions, including the IM-2 mission in the fall and IM-3 early next year.
Intuitive Machines expected to operate the lander until the end of the lunar day, which they estimated to be another nine to ten days from the landing.
Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander, named Odysseus, completed a seven-day journey to lunar orbit and landed near Malapert A on February 22 at 5:24 p.m. CST.
Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission launched on 2024-02-15 and that activity contributed to a roughly one-week delay for Crew-8.
Intuitive Machines had a Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) award valued at $118 million for the IM-1 mission.
Intuitive Machines' landing site for Odysseus was about 1.5 kilometers from its planned location.
Intuitive Machines delayed the landing of Odysseus by two hours to modify the lander's software to use NDL data.
Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander Odysseus completed a seven-day journey to lunar orbit and softly landed near Malapert A in the Moon’s South Pole region at 5:24 p.m. CST on 2024-02-22.
Shares of Intuitive Machines fell 15% on the Nasdaq exchange on 2024-02-21, including a sharp drop around the anticipated orbital insertion time.
Intuitive Machines planned that successfully completing the 2024-02-16 engine test would increase confidence that the engine would perform as required for a soft landing.
Intuitive Machines completed two trajectory correction maneuvers prior to the 2024-02-21 insertion burn and determined a third planned maneuver was not needed.