Intuitive Machines IM-1 Lunar Lander

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2023-2024 has been the year of the lunar lander. India's ISRO successfully landed Chandrayaan-2. Japan had an unsuccessful attempt from I-Space and then JAXA's (sorta) successful SLIM. The US had an unsuccessful attempt by Astrobotic. Now the US's Intuitive Machines is having their shot.

Like Astrobotics' Peregrine, Intuitive Machines' IM-1 is partially funded by NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The goal of CLPS is to acquire several different commercially developed lunar landers able to be launched by commercial rockets and able to deliver small payloads to the Moon's surface.

IM-1 will be launched from legendary Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in the first lunar launch from that pad since Apollo 17 in 1972! The launch vehicle will be a SpaceX Falcon 9, B1060 on its 18th flight. After sending IM-1 on a translunar injection orbit, B1060 will boost back for a Return to Launch Site (RTLS) landing attempt at landing zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Launch is scheduled for Tuesday Feb 13 at 9:57 PM PST/Wednesday Feb 14 at12:57 AM EST.

https://www.intuitivemachines.com/im-1

SpaceX photo of IM-1 inside its Falcon-9 payload fairing.

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https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/CvdgoX-3WOM

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After being delayed a day by a problem fueling the lander yesterday, B1060 launched beautifully and returned to stick its 18th landing at Cape Canaveral. Meanwhile its second stage achieved orbit, then relit again to put the IM-1 lander in a big looping orbit out to the Moon.

The lander separated from its ride, oriented itself relative to the "fixed" stars and pointed its solar panels at the Sun. Then it phoned home. The Intuitive Machines control room in Houston were clapping when its signal was received, verifying it was alive and on its way to the Moon.

It was a big day for SpaceX. Just a few hours earlier in the day another Falcon 9 left SLC 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station carrying a military payload called USSF 124. That Falcon also landed flawlessly back at the landing zones at CCSFS.

Here's a photo of USSF 124 departing from SLC 40 at CCSFS with IM-1 in the foreground at Pad 39A at KSC, awaiting its turn a few hours later.

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Intuitive Machines is posting very informative mission updates on X. (Astrobotic did the same for Peregrine.)

https://twitter.com/Int_Machines/status/...5087925448

1/4 The IM-1 mission Nova-C class lunar lander continues to be in excellent health, in a stable orientation and remains on schedule for a lunar landing opportunity on the afternoon of February 22. The original mission structure allocated a Commission Maneuver (CM) and three trajectory correction maneuvers to position for Lunar Orbit Insertion. This approach provided flexibility in the mission’s engine burn schedule to allow for learning as we operate the lander in the vacuum of space. Adjusting for this learning process is why the team chose to delay the burn on February 15.

2/4 Communication delays and outages are expected when executing lunar missions, which we accounted for in our mission planning. While preparing for the CM burn last night, flight controllers experienced intermittent uplink and downlink data communications between Nova-C and the ground stations, potentially impacting our ability to collect the critical information required to support the CM burn and follow-on performance analysis.

3/4 As we prepared for the first-ever in-space ignition of a liquid methane and liquid oxygen engine, we reviewed our Earth-based test data against the data we’ve accumulated in space. The in-space performance demonstrated that it takes longer to chill the liquid oxygen feed line than the Earth-based testing. After understanding the in-space liquid oxygen feedline requirements, we adjusted and uploaded the CM burn preparation timeline and increased the onboard event sequence timer.

4/4 Again, the IM-1 mission Nova-C class lunar lander is in excellent health, and we expect to continue to provide mission updates at least once a day on X and the IM-1 Mission webpage.

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Intuitive Machines latest update:

Intuitive Machines flight controllers successfully fired the first liquid methane and liquid oxygen engine in space, completing the IM-1 mission engine commissioning. This engine firing included a full thrust mainstage engine burn and throttle down profile necessary to land on the Moon.

Over the next eight hours, flight controllers will analyze the engine burn data collected from over 270,000 km away from Earth. This represents another first for Intuitive Machines, demonstrating one of the critical technologies required to land softly on the surface of the Moon.

The IM-1 mission Nova-C class lunar lander continues to be in excellent health, in a stable orientation and remains on schedule for a lunar landing opportunity on the afternoon of February 22. We expect to continue to provide mission updates at least once a day on X and the IM-1 Mission webpage.

SpaceX photo of payload separation showing the Intuitive Machines Lander right after it was released from the Falcon 9 second stage.

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Intuitive Machines photo looking back at the F-9 second stage.

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"Looking forward, Intuitive Machines expects to execute lunar orbit insertion on February 21st, with a lunar landing opportunity on the afternoon of the 22nd."

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Flight controllers received and analyzed data from the February 16th engine Commissioning Maneuver (CM). Data from the 21-second full-thrust mainstage engine CM confirmed Odysseus hit its 21 m/s target with approximately 0.8 m/s accuracy.

Propulsion mixture ratios, mass flow rate, and temperature were as predicted. Overall, Intuitive Machines characterizes the execution of the CM as nominal and per expectations.

On February 18th, flight controllers commanded the lander’s first planned trajectory correction maneuver, igniting the lander’s engine for the second time, and are planning the anticipated final required maneuver before Odysseus’ largest challenge to date, lunar orbit insertion, which is expected on Wednesday, February 21st. In addition, flight controllers completed all NASA and commercial transit payload operations this morning.

Odysseus continues to be in excellent health, and flight controllers are analyzing and managing the lander’s thermal conditioning for critical systems and payloads with a combination of heater power and attitude control to maximize efficiency.

We expect to continue to provide mission updates at least once a day on X and the IM-1 Mission web page, where we intend to host a live stream for landing coverage.

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Intuitive Machines flight controllers commanded the IM-1 mission’s second planned Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) with enough precision to eliminate the need for the initially planned third TCM engine firing.

Today’s TCM fired at 1400 CST for 8 seconds, and it is the final maneuver before Odysseus’ largest challenge to date, Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI), scheduled for February 21, 2024.
Odysseus continues to be in excellent health and is approximately 68,000 km from the Moon. Over the next several hours, flight controllers will continue to analyze the flight data ahead of LOI.

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Odysseus completed its scheduled 408-second main engine lunar orbit insertion burn and is currently in a 92 km circular lunar orbit. Initial data indicates the 800 m/s burn was completed within 2 m/s accuracy.

Over the next day, while the lander remains in lunar orbit, flight controllers will analyze the complete flight data and transmit imagery of the Moon.

Odysseus continues to be in excellent health. We expect to continue to provide mission updates at least once a day on X and the IM-1 Mission web page, where we intend to host a live stream for landing coverage.

Odysseus, @Int_Machines’ uncrewed Moon lander, is targeted to touch down at the lunar South Pole at 5:30pm ET (2230 UTC) Feb. 22. Watch live with us as this Moon delivery brings science instruments to study the region.

https://www.intuitivemachines.com/im-1

https://go.nasa.gov/49Dw6bW

Intuitive machines photo of Belkovich K crater in the Moon's northern equatorial highlands. It's about 50 km across. The photo was taken with the lander's terrain relative navigation camera.

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Intuitive Machines Moon landing time adjusted forward to 1524 CST (1624 EST, 1324 PST)

Flight controllers commanded a lunar correction maneuver to raise Odysseus’ orbit overnight and updated the anticipated landing time to 1524 CST. We expect the landing stream to start on the IM-1 web page and NASA TV at 1400 CST. The content on both streams is identical.

https://intuitivemachines.com/im-1