Intuitive Machines, LLC is a private American company headquartered in Houston, Texas. It was founded in 2013 by Steve Altemus, Kam Ghaffarian, Tim Crain to provide autonomous systems for industrial systems, drones, spacecraft and spacesuitmodeling and simulation services.
Overview
Intuitive Machines has designed some airborne drones and spacecraft, including the Universal Reentry Vehicle, the Nova-C lunar lander, and other flight instrument systems. In November 2018, it was selected by NASA as one of the 9 companies granted the right to bid on the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Their lander, Nova-C, will be proposed to NASA's CLPS as the first lander of this program, that is focused on the exploration and use of natural resources of the Moon. On 31 May 2019, NASA announced it had awarded Intuitive Machines $77 million to build and launch their Nova-C Moon lander. On 13 April 2020, Intuitive Machines, under contract to carry NASA science instruments to the Moon on a privately-developed robotic spacecraft, said that its first commercial lunar mission will target landing in October 2021 near a deep, narrow valley named Vallis Schröteri. Vallis Schröteri is located on the upper left part of the Moon's near side, as viewed from the northern hemisphere on Earth. The Nova-C Moon lander developed by Intuitive Machines will attempt to land on a relatively flat area near Vallis Schröteri in a region named Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms. NASA considered sending the Apollo 18 mission to land in the same area, but the flight was canceled. Intuitive Machines announced in October 2019 that its first Nova-C lander would launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The company said on 13 April 2020 that its first lunar mission, designated IM-1, is scheduled for launch as soon as 11 October 2021, on a Falcon 9 rocket from pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center of the NASA in Florida. The Intuitive Machines contract with NASA is valued at $77 million, covering transportation and operations at the Moon for five NASA science instruments. Intuitive Machines previously said the first Nova-C lander was scheduled for launch in July 2021. Josh Marshall, a company spokesperson, said on 15 April 2020, that the mission was pushed back three months due to impacts from a protest to the company's contract award by Deep Space Systems. Deep Space Systems also bid for the contracts that were ultimately won by Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic Technology. After a review, the Government Accountability Office upheld NASA's selection of Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic Technology, allowing work on the CLPS missions to proceed.
