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Intuitive Machines, LLC is a private American company headquartered in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. It was founded in 2013 by Stephen Altemus,

Kam Ghaffarian Kamal (Kam) Ghaffarian is an American businessman known as the founder of IBX, Axiom Space, Intuitive Machines, and X-energy. Ghaffarian was born in Iran and came to the United States at age 17. He holds dual B.S. degree in Computer Science and ...

, Tim Crain. Intuitive Machines is completing its lunar program which will provide lunar surface access, lunar orbit delivery, and communications at lunar distance. Intuitive Machines holds three NASA contracts, under the space agency's

Commercial Lunar Payload Services Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to contract transportation services able to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon's south polar region mostly with the goals of scouting for lunar resources, testing in sit ...

(CLPS) initiative, to deliver payloads to the lunar surface.

Overview

Intuitive Machines has designed some airborne drones and spacecraft, including the Universal Reentry Vehicle (URV),

lunar lander, and other flight instrument systems. In November 2018, it was selected by NASA as one of the 9 companies granted the right to bid on the

Commercial Lunar Payload Services Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to contract transportation services able to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon's south polar region mostly with the goals of scouting for lunar resources, testing in sit ...

program (CLPS). Their lander,

Nova-C ''Nova-C'' is a lunar lander designed by the private company Intuitive Machines to deliver small commercial payloads to the surface of the Moon. Intuitive Machines was one of nine contractor companies selected by NASA in November 2018 to su ...

, will be proposed to NASA's CLPS as the first lander of this program, that is focused on the exploration and use of natural resources of the Moon. On 31 May 2019, NASA announced it had awarded Intuitive Machines $77 million to build and launch their Nova-C Moon lander. On 13 April 2020, Intuitive Machines, under contract to carry NASA science instruments to the Moon on a privately developed robotic spacecraft, said that its first commercial lunar mission would target landing near a deep, narrow valley named

Vallis Schröteri Schroter's Valley, frequently known by the Latinized name Vallis Schröteri, is a sinuous valley or rille on the surface of the near side of the Moon. It is located on a rise of continental ground, sometimes called the Aristarchus plateau, that ...

. Vallis Schröteri is located on the upper left part of the Moon's near side, as viewed from the northern hemisphere on Earth. The Nova-C Moon lander developed by Intuitive Machines would attempt to land on a relatively flat area near Vallis Schröteri in a region named

Oceanus Procellarum Oceanus Procellarum ( la, Ōceanus procellārum, lit=Ocean of Storms) is a vast lunar mare on the western edge of the near side of the Moon. It is the only one of the lunar maria to be called an "Oceanus" (ocean), due to its size: Oceanus Proc ...

, also known as the Ocean of Storms. NASA considered sending the Apollo 18 mission to land in the same area, but the flight was canceled. By April 2021, however, the landing site had been changed to an unspecified location between

Mare Serenitatis Mare Serenitatis (Latin ''serēnitātis'', the "Sea of Serenity") is a lunar mare located to the east of Mare Imbrium on the Moon. Its diameter is . Geology Mare Serenitatis is located within the Serenitatis basin, which is of the Nectarian ep ...

and

Mare Crisium Mare Crisium (Latin ''crisium'', the "Sea of Crises") is a lunar mare located in the Moon's Crisium basin, just northeast of Mare Tranquillitatis. The basin is of the Pre-Imbrian period, 4.55 to 3.85 billion years ago. Characteristics Mare Cri ...

. Intuitive Machines announced in October 2019 that its first Nova-C lander would launch on a SpaceX

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and payl ...

rocket. The company said on 13 April 2020 that its first lunar mission, designated IM-1, was scheduled for launch as soon as 11 October 2021, on a Falcon 9 rocket from pad

LC-39A Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39B, were first designed for the Saturn V launch vehicle. Ty ...

at

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

of the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

in Florida. As of May 2022, IM-1 was scheduled to launch on 22 December 2022, but in November 2022, IM-1 was scheduled for March 2023 earliest. The Intuitive Machines contract with NASA is valued at $77 million, covering transportation and operations at the Moon for five NASA science instruments. Intuitive Machines previously said the first Nova-C lander was scheduled for launch in July 2021. Josh Marshall, a company spokesperson, said on 15 April 2020, that the mission was pushed back three months due to impacts from a protest to the company's contract award by

Deep Space Systems Deep Space Systems, Inc (DSS) is a private aerospace company dedicated to systems engineering that supports the design, development, integration, testing and operations of science and exploration spacecraft. DSS was incorporated in 2001 and it ...

. Deep Space Systems also bid for the contracts that were ultimately won by Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic Technology. After a review, the

Government Accountability Office The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal govern ...

(GAO) upheld NASA's selection of Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic Technology, allowing work on the CLPS missions to proceed.

References

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