Intuitive Machines will launch the IM-1 mission Nova-C class lunar lander on a SpaceX Falcon 9.
The Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission will be the Company’s first attempted lunar landing as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (“CLPS”) initiative, a key part of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration efforts.
The Intuitive Machines 1 (IM-1, TO2-IM) mission objective is to place a NOVA-C lander, called Odysseus, at crater Malapert A near the south pole of the Moon. The commercially built lander will carry five NASA payloads and commercial cargo. The scientific objectives of the mission include studies of plume-surface interactions, radio astronomy, and space weather interactions with the lunar surface. It will also be demonstrating precision landing technologies and communication and navigation node capabilities.
The Odysseus Lander is a hexagonal cylinder, 4.0 meters tall and 1.57 meters wide, on 6 landing legs with a launch mass of 1908 kg. It is capable of carrying approximately 100 kg of payload to the surface. It uses solar panels to generate 200 W of power on the surface, using a 25 amp-hr battery and a 28 VDC system. Propulsion and landing use liquid methane as fuel and liquid oxygen as an oxidizer powering a 3100 N main engine mounted on the bottom of the lander. Communications are via S-band. The scientific payload includes the Laser Retro-Reflector Array (LRA), Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing (NDL), Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator (LN-1), Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS), and Radio wave Observation at the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath (ROLSES). In total there are five NASA and four commercial payloads planned.
Launch is currently scheduled for no earlier than 15 February 2024 at 06:05 UT (1:05 a.m. EST). After launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center, the spacecraft will go into a 185 x 60,000 km Earth orbit, followed by a translunar injection and a maneuver to put it in a 100 km lunar orbit. The lander will land on the Moon at Malapert A crater near the south pole. If launch occurs any time in the three day window in February, the landing will take place on February 22. The lander is capable of operating for about 14 Earth days in sunlight.
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, February 15 for a Falcon 9 launch of the Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission to a lunar transfer orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous launch window is at 1:05 a.m. ET.
A live webcast of this mission will begin on X @SpaceX about 45 minutes prior to liftoff.
Approximately two and a half hours prior to liftoff, teams will begin loading the lunar lander with cryogenic methane and oxygen on the pad ahead of stepping into propellant load for Falcon 9.
This is the 18th flight of the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, Intelsat G-33/G-34, Transporter-6, and 12 Starlink missions. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
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