Intuitive Machines’ first Moon landing has been completed and is ready for launch next month, with executives saying they are cautiously optimistic about the possibility of a successful landing. The company unveiled the finished Nova-C lander at its new headquarters on Oct. 3, a day after completing a pre-ship inspection that confirmed the spacecraft was ready to be transported to Kennedy Space Center for the Falcon 9 launch on a mission called IM-. one.

This launch is planned to last six days, starting from Launch Complex 39A KSC on November 16. The lander will separate from the base unit 32 minutes after launch and begin a five-day journey to the Moon. One day after entering lunar orbit, the spacecraft will attempt to land in Malapert Crater, about 300 kilometers from the moon’s south pole.

“We’re ready to go,” Tim Crane, Intuitive Machines’ chief technology officer, said in an interview. Engineers completed all hardware and software testing of the vehicle before shipment, leaving no issues to be resolved before launch. “We’re very happy with where we are.”

The biggest problem with the launch now is out of the company’s control: “congestion” at Launch Complex 39A, the mission’s launch site. There are several other IM-1 launches in the region, including the Falcon Heavy Psyche launch, which was recently postponed by a week to October 12. IM-1 is required for launch with the LC-39A because only this pad is configured to flood the lander with methane and liquid oxygen shortly before liftoff.

“We’re working with SpaceX to try to thread the needle,” Crane said. “We will be ready to work on November 16, but we need to overcome traffic congestion.” If IM-1 is not launched in November, there is a possibility of a backup launch in mid-December.

IM-1 is the company’s first lander and the first to be part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, under which the agency purchases payload space on commercial landers. IM-1 carries five NASA payloads as well as six commercial payloads from customers ranging from Embry Riddle Air Force One to artist Jeff Koons.

IM-1 aims to be the first non-governmental spacecraft to successfully land on the Moon. Israel’s SpaceIL’s Beresheet crashed during a Moon landing attempt in 2019, while Japan’s ispace HAKUTO-R M1 crashed during a landing attempt in April.

Less than 45 percent of lunar landing missions since the dawn of the space age have been successful, but Intuitive Machines executives expressed confidence in the changes that will enable IM-1 to successfully reach the surface.

“I feel really good,” Crane said. He noted that the company is paying close attention to failed landing attempts to see if the Nova-C design is also susceptible to similar types of failures. For example, the Beresheet lander experienced problems with its inertial measurement units (IMUs) during descent. To avoid a similar scenario, the Nova-C has different backup IMUs, Crane said.

Steve Althemus, managing director of Intuitive Machines, estimated the likelihood of success at “65% to over 75%”; This is above the historical average. He said this was based on the company’s experience with the lander’s core technologies, such as precision descent and propulsion system.

It also relies on lessons learned from failed missions. “We learned everything we witnessed in terms of anomalies that caused missions to fail,” he said. “So I think we have a better chance.”

More from IM-1

The company’s management emphasized that they did not bet on the mission of a single lander. The same high bay that holds the IM-1 lander ready also houses components for IM-2 ready for assembly in the coming months.

“We have a chance to fail. I’m pretty open about that,” Althemus said. “But we have a few missions to the moon. We have other businesses that diversify us, keeping us from failure.”

The company has three NASA CLPS awards for moon landing missions, but it is also branching out into other areas of the business. Earlier this year, the company collaborated with KBR to win a NASA engineering services contract called Omnibus Multidisciplinary Engineering Services (OMES) III, with a maximum value of $719 million over five years. Intuitive Machines was also one of three companies recently awarded a contract by the BBC’s R&D Laboratory to work on the design of a nuclear-powered spacecraft.

“Look at Intuitive Machines as a diversified space exploration company” with multiple business lines, Altemus said. In addition to the recent awards, the company is also bidding on a contract to provide communications services for NASA’s Near Space Network, support for lunar missions, and NASA’s Lunar Lander for future Artemis crewed missions.

Intuitive Machines, he says, “is a modern example of an aerospace company that is not beholden to the traditional cost-plus-reward contracting methods of the past, but can live and operate in a fixed-price environment, even NASA.” buys a service.”

The company also became public after going public via a SPAC merger in February. He argued that this not only helped bring more attention to the company, but also helped maintain control. “Investors can be fickle and sometimes harsh with us,” he admitted. “If I continue to focus on growing my business over the long term and creating real shareholder value, that will be the winner of the day, whether we succeed or fail in everything we do.”

“We are confident in the system we will bring to the Cape,” he said of IM-1, adding that staff were “excited” that the mission was getting closer to launch. “It’s time to fly.” Source