KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — An Intuitive Machines spacecraft is on its way to the moon Feb. 15 in the company’s quest to be the first commercial entity to successfully land on the lunar surface.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off at 1:05 a.m. Eastern from Launch Complex 39A here after a 24-hour delay. The rocket’s upper stage deployed the Nova-C lander, called Odysseus, about 48 minutes later, after placing the spacecraft on a trajectory towards the moon.
The lander will arrive at the moon on Feb. 21, going into an orbit about 100 kilometers above the moon. That will set the spacecraft up for a landing attempt near the Malapert A crater, in the south polar region of the moon, late in the afternoon (Eastern time) Feb. 22. Intuitive Machine has not disclosed specific times for either orbit insertion or landing.
A key milestone for the IM-1 mission will come about 18 hours after launch, when the spacecraft fires its main engine for the first time in a commissioning test. That engine, developed by Intuitive Machines and using liquid oxygen and methane propellants, will later be used for any necessary trajectory correction maneuvers as well as for going into orbit around the moon and the landing itself.
“That’s a critical maneuver and, if we make that maneuver go well, we’re on our way to the moon,” Steve Altemus, chief executive of Intuitive Machines, said in a Feb. 12 interview. “I think our confidence level goes from 75 to 80% to about 90% once that commissioning maneuver is done.”
The lander was fueled with liquid oxygen and methane starting a few hours before liftoff. An issue involving what SpaceX called “off-nominal methane temperatures” prevented the spacecraft from being fueled for a launch attempt 24 hours earlier.
A dozen payloads
The spacecraft’s primary customer is NASA, which is flying six payloads through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program under an award valued at about $118…
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