The long-awaited Moon mission, within the scope of Intuitive Machines’ contract with NASA, has finally reached its planned date after delays. The launch of the IM-1 lunar vehicle will take place in the interim window opened on January 12, 2024 and will be carried out by a SpaceX rocket. The previously planned launch date was determined as November 2023.

As Steve Altemus, co-founder and CEO of Intuitive Machines, said: “We completed work on our lunar rover in September, and the entire team is looking forward to launch.”

The IM-1 lunar rover will be launched into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Air Force Launch Pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Nova-C mission’s descent device involves landing on the rim of the Malapert crater, located near the Moon’s south pole.

The size of a truck, the Nova-C has a hexagonal shape and is more than 4 meters high and 1.6 meters wide. The total weight of the device is approximately two tons, and NASA placed five scientific instruments on board.

In addition to its lunar landing target, Nova-C was designed to serve as an “explorer” for NASA manned missions planned to be sent to the Moon in the future. It will serve as a “space reconstruction module” for Artemis 3, a crewed mission planned for 2025 targeting the Moon’s south pole. Within the scope of the Artemis program, Artemis 1, which will orbit around the moon, is planned to be launched in 2022, and Artemis 2, which will send a crew of four astronauts, is planned to be launched in 2024.

Intuitive Machines can be considered one of the participants in the unofficial race to become the first private company to successfully complete a lunar mission. Another participant, Astrobotic, plans to launch the Peregrine spacecraft on December 24 using United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket.

Both of these missions are part of NASA’s Lunar Cargo Delivery Program (CLPS), which is part of the Artemis program. CLPS proposes delivering autonomous cargo to the Moon’s south pole; It is also assumed that the landing of the astronauts was planned based on data on the availability of water in this region.

In 2019, Israel attempted the first dedicated Beresheet mission but it failed. Japan’s ispace mission also encountered a failure during the Hakuto-R landing in 2022. While Russia failed to land on the moon in August 2023, the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully reached the moon a few weeks later.