![An artist's rendering of the Nova-C spacecraft on the lunar surface.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/NovaC-800x450.png)
Intuitive Machines
A Houston-based company that’s one in all several US firms constructing private lunar landers, Intuitive Machines, says its 3-meter-tall Nova-C lander is finally able to take to the skies.
“Our Nova-C lander is totally built,” said Steve Altemus, co-founder and chief executive of Intuitive Machines, in an earnings call on Monday. “We’ll deliver a lunar lander able to go in September.”
Intuitive Machines is competing with other US firms, including Astrobotic and Firefly, for NASA-funded missions to deliver science experiments and other payloads to the surface of the Moon. Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic were formally awarded the primary of those “Business Lunar Payload Services” contracts in May 2019. Each of the businesses is running a few years behind schedule in producing their landers, nevertheless.
Astrobotic announced earlier this yr that its Peregrine lander was accomplished and prepared for its flight. Nevertheless, the spacecraft has not yet been shipped from its factory in Pittsburgh to the launch site in Florida because United Launch Alliance has not accomplished testing of its recent Vulcan rocket. That mission, in keeping with sources, could launch as early as mid-December.
Intuitive Machines has been lagging a bit behind Astrobotic but now appears to have caught up. Since it has booked a ride on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, Intuitive Machines has the advantage of a vehicle that flies often and reliably—SpaceX has already launched greater than 50 Falcon 9 rockets during this yr.
The Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines missions are a part of a flurry of activity expected on the lunar surface inside the following several months.
The road to launch
In the course of the earnings call, Altemus said Intuitive Machines will conduct about two weeks of flight software testing in Houston, followed by electromagnetic interference tests to be certain that spacecraft operations do not need an adversarial effect on the vehicle’s five NASA payloads or those for business customers. Finally, there can be a center-of-gravity measurement before the Nova-C lander is shipped to the Florida launch site in a single month.
Altemus said pre-launch processing at SpaceX’s facilities at Kennedy Space Center, including fueling the spacecraft and encapsulating it within the Falcon 9 rocket’s fairing, will take 35 days. This can be followed by a wet dress rehearsal after which the launch.
Currently, the Intuitive Machines-1 mission has a launch slot reserved from November 15 through November 20 on board a Falcon 9 lifting off from Launch Complex-39A at Kennedy Space Center. Nevertheless, Altemus acknowledged that schedule changes are possible as a result of weather or if SpaceX has to launch higher-priority customers for the US military or NASA. If that is the case, the corporate has a backup window in December.
This mission is slated to land near the South Pole of the Moon, and it could mark the primary time any US-led mission attempted to land near this polar region where scientists consider there could also be large deposits of ice.
A publicly traded company, Intuitive Machines reported $18 million in revenue in the course of the second quarter of this yr, with an operating lack of $13.2 million. The corporate has $39.1 million in money and money equivalents available. Altemus said the firm’s multiple lines of business—lunar landers, lunar data services, and in-space services—are all demonstrating growth. Intuitive Machines, he said, is already well along in constructing its second Nova-C spacecraft for an additional NASA mission in 2024.
Intuitive Machines can be among the many bidders for a big NASA contract to offer a next-generation lunar rover for NASA as a part of its Artemis Program to explore the Moon.