Intuitive Machines, Inc., a leading space exploration, infrastructure, and services company, announced the completion of science and data transmission for all NASA and commercial payloads onboard Odysseus, the Nova-C class lunar lander, after the successful February 22 soft landing on the south pole region of the Moon.
Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said, “Spaceflight’s unique challenges are conquered on Earth but mastered in space. Our now proven robust lunar program, a national asset, feeds directly into our second and third missions. This success drives our relentless pursuit of performance excellence to benefit the entire industry.”
Intuitive Machines achieved these marquee accomplishments in the Company’s first attempt to land on the Moon:
- Successfully soft-landed the Company’s Nova-C class lunar lander, Odysseus, on the Moon, marking the United States’ first lunar landing in over 50 years since Apollo 17
- Validated the performance of the Company’s proprietary liquid methane and liquid oxygen propulsion system through the first-ever deep space ignition, followed by multiple restarts, repeatedly providing successful spacecraft maneuvers
- Became the first commercial-sector company and NASA CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) provider to successfully land and transmit scientific data to and from the Moon
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- Landed Odysseus, farther south than any vehicle in the world has ever soft-landed on the Moon, which we believe is significant given NASA’s $93B Artemis Campaign is targeting the region for human missions
- Traveled over 600,000 miles and softly landed less than one mile from its intended Malapert A landing region
- Transmitted over 350 megabytes of science and engineering data, which was collected across all payloads; NASA confirms mission success
- Exceeded one of the mission objectives to operate 144 hours on the lunar surface and entered standby mode on February 29, 2024, as we await two to three weeks for the next lunar day and a potential for Odysseus’ revival
- Fundamentally disrupted the economics of landing on the Moon through a fixed-price performance contract, demonstrating unprecedented economics and efficiency to commercial customers and NASA
Accomplishing the IM-1 mission required Intuitive Machines to integrate on a global scale. Radio astronomy dishes spread across a dozen countries, international hardware providers, and the strength of the United States domestic supply chain across more than 50 congressional districts were paramount in the IM-1 mission success.
Mr. Altemus continued, “Before this mission, we had an absolute sense of humility and relied on our technical excellence and years of experience to triumph and persevere throughout all the challenges we faced during the mission. Following our unequivocal success, I am emboldened for the future of the U.S. and international lunar economy and Intuitive Machines’ future as we believe we can win, execute, and pioneer the future of the cislunar market.”
SOURCE : globenewswire