WASHINGTON — Intuitive Machines offered a clearer projection of when its first lunar lander mission will launch while also giving a cloudier forecast of its funds.
The corporate announced Aug. 14 as a part of its second quarter financial results that its IM-1 lunar lander mission is slated for launch on a Falcon 9 during a six-day window that opens Nov. 15 at Launch Complex 39A on the Kennedy Space Center. A backup launch window is offered in December.
During an earnings call, Steve Altemus, chief executive of Intuitive Machines, said the corporate was wrapping up testing of the Nova-C lander for IM-1 prematurely of shipment to Cape Canaveral. “Today, our IM-1 lander is complete and might be prepared for delivery in September.”
He cautioned, though, that the date was subject to availability of the Eastern Range and of LC-39A, which is used for crew and cargo missions to the International Space Station and Falcon Heavy launches. “With the congestion for launches using pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, we recognize that higher-priority missions are at all times possible,” he said.
IM-1 is just not only the primary lunar lander mission by Intuitive Machines but in addition potentially the primary lander as a part of NASA’s Industrial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is complete but awaiting the readiness of its launcher, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur. That rocket’s inaugural flight, with Peregrine because the prime payload, is planned for no sooner than the fourth quarter.
IM-1 is the primary of three lunar lander missions that the corporate has in development as a part of CLPS. Altemus said the corporate is constructing the lander structure and integrating NASA payloads for the IM-2 mission. He didn’t give a projected launch date for IM-2, which was once expected to launch before the top of the yr, several months after IM-1.
He said the corporate is awaiting a choice on a proposal for one more CLPS mission, designated CP-22 by NASA, to deliver a drill to the lunar south pole. Nevertheless, he said the agency has delayed the award of that task order from the third quarter of 2023 to November.
The corporate said schedule slips in contract awards just like the CLPS task order was one reason the corporate was withdrawing earlier financial guidance it offered. The corporate had earlier forecast revenues of $174 million to $268 million for the yr, ending 2023 with a money balance of $49 million.
Intuitive Machines reported $18 million in revenue within the second quarter, primarily from its CLPS work, down from $19.2 million in the identical quarter of 2022. It had an operating lack of $13.2 million and ended the quarter with $39.1 million of money.
Erik Sallee, chief financial officer of Intuitive Machines, said on the decision that “delays on government acquisition timelines and U.S. federal budget uncertainty” led the corporate to withdraw that guidance. He added it was not linked to any contract losses sustained by the corporate. “We haven’t lost anything that we previously had in our forecast,” he said. “All of it shifted out to the correct.”
Considered one of those delays was with a NASA engineering services contract called Omnibus Multidiscipline Engineering Services (OMES) III. Intuitive Machines teamed with KBR to win the contract, valued at as much as $719 million over five years, in April. One other bidder, SAIC, filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office in May, delaying the beginning of that work.
The GAO rejected the SAIC protest Aug. 8, allowing NASA to proceed with the OMES III contract award to KBR and Intuitive Machines. The worth of OMES III was not included in the corporate’s backlog of $137.3 million it reported at the top of the second quarter, and Altemus said the corporate was projecting to start out work on that engineering services contract within the fourth quarter.
The corporate is also bidding on NASA’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle contract to develop rovers to be offered as services for future Artemis crewed missions. Altemus said he expects NASA to make multiple awards under that program, potentially within the fourth quarter.
While the corporate only has enough money to last three quarters at its current rate of operating losses, Sallee said that cash together with revenue ought to be sufficient. He added, though, that the corporate could tap a $50 million equity financing facility “to offer further cushion, if needed.”