Company - Intuitive Machines
Product/Service - Nova-C, Nova-D
- Classification
- Cargo Transportation & Landers
- Category
- Commercial Lunar Lander
Transport Service (LEO-Moon)
In-Space Communications Relay
- Fields
- Moon
Mars
- Status
- Demonstrated, Launched
- First launch
- 2024
Lunar Landers
IM-1 Mission (2024)
- Falcon 9 launches first Intuitive Machines lunar lander, SpaceNews, 2024-02-15.
- Intuitive Machines lands on the moon, SpaceNews, 2024-02-22.
- Intuitive Machines' Odysseus moon lander didn't deploy camera during historic descent, Space.com, 2024-02-23.
- IM-1 lunar lander tipped over on its side, SpaceNews, 2024-02-23.
- The Odysseus lander released EagleCam on Feb 28, but no data sent.
IM-2 Mission (2025)
- Intuitive Machines is expected to launch its second lunar lander this week 2025-02-23.
- Altimeter problems, lighting challenges caused IM-2 lunar lander to fall on its side, 2025-05-13.
Nova-D
Lunar Access - Rideshare
SPAC
Lunar Data Relay
Data relay (KHoN)
All five of our Data Relay Satellites (Khon) utilize our rideshare services to place the satellites into a variety of orbits to support continuous data relay services of satellites in cislunar space and lunar surface systems. The Khon satellites are developed under contract with York Space Systems and are privately owned and operated by Intuitive Machines.
Status Comment
- Intuitive Machines first lunar lander made a partially successful soft landing on 2024-02-22.
- As of September 2023, two additional missions, IM-2 and IM-3, were scheduled to launch in 2024.
- Altimeter problems, lighting challenges caused IM-2 lunar lander to fall on its side, 2025-05-13.
- IM-1 and IM-2 missions both fell over and many payloads did not complete the missions.
Notes
- Intuitive Machines completes SPAC merger (SpaceNews, 2023-02-13).
- Embracing the era of decentralized technologies by entering an intellectual property agreement with Crisium Ltd. for the creation and sale of blockchain-based digital collectibles using Intuitive Machines’ media, 2023-08-28.
- Intuitive Machines raises $20 million (SpaceNews, 2023-09-01).
- It turns out that Odysseus landed on the Moon without any altimetry data, Eric Berger, 2024-02-27.
- Intuitive Machines Reports First Quarter 2024 Financial Results; Provides 2024 Revenue Outlook, 2024-05-14.
- Intuitive Machines Expands Data Transmission Services for Lunar and Deep Space Missions, 2025-04-02.
Product/Service - Micro-Nova
- Classification
- Surface Spacecraft
- Category
- Hopper
Drone
Moon Drone
Space Drone
- Status
- Development, Launched
- First launch
- 2025
Drone / Hopper
Intuitive Machines won the largest of those awards for development of a “hopper” that can carry a one-kilogram payload up to 2.5 kilometers across the lunar surface. “That’s going to give us high-resolution mapping of maybe volatiles on the surface of the moon,” Bridenstine said. “It’s going to help us understand how to pinpoint very precise landing spots on the surface of the moon.”
micro nova(µNova)
We meet the demands of science and technology by providing extreme lunar mobility with µNova (Micro Nova) Hopper.
- µNova is a propulsive drone that deploys off of a Nova-C lander and hops across the lunar surface on our IM-2 mission.
- The µNova Hopper can accommodate up to 1 kg of science payloads and expand the exploration footprint to 25 km from the initial landing location.
- µNova can also hop into and out of permanently shaded regions (PSR), providing a first look into undiscovered areas that may provide the critical science needed to sustain a human presence on the Moon.
Joint Polar Satellite System
Status Comment
Launched in 2025 on IM-2, but tipped over and was not deployed.
Created: 2023-02-10
Updated: 2025-09-06
Product/Service
- Classification
- Surface Spacecraft
- Category
- Commercial Rover
- Fields
- Lunar Rover
Crewed
- Status
- Development
- First launch
- Not announced
NASA document outlines selection of lunar rover companies, SpaceNews, 2024-04-15.
- Intuitive Machines had the lowest overall price, at $1.692 billion, but also the lowest mission suitability score of 724 out of 1,000.
- NASA praised the proposal for “a unique type of detachable trailer architecture” that would be used with the rover, something the company didn’t emphasize in its announcement of the award.
- However, that trailer also created a weakness cited by the proposal because, of the placement of the rover’s robotic arm, “it will be difficult or impossible to gather pristine samples with the trailer connected.”
NASA Invests in Artemis Studies to Support Long-Term Lunar Exploration, 2025-01-23.
- NASA awarded new study contracts Thursday to help support life and work on the lunar surface.
- The Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships Appendix R contracts will advance learning in managing everyday challenges in the lunar environment identified in the agency’s Moon to Mars architecture.
- The selected proposals have a combined value of $24 million, spread across multiple companies, and propose innovative strategies and concepts for logistics and mobility solutions including advanced robotics and autonomous capabilities.
- Intuitive Machines, Houston, Texas – logistics handling and offloading; and surface cargo and mobility.
Created: 2024-07-09
Updated: 2025-09-06
Product/Service - Nebula
- Classification
- In-Space Transportation
- Category
- Orbital Transportation
Transport Service (LEO-GEO)
- Fields
- Transport Service (In-Space)
- Status
- Development
- First launch
- Not announced
Orbital Transfer Vehicle
- Orbits: MEO, GEO, Lagrange Points, NRHO, LLO, Interplanetary
- Payload Capacity: 2,100 kg
- Payload Power: 300 W orbital average, up to 1 kW peak
- Delta-V: 1,900 m/s for a 2,000 kg payload
- Propulsion: Flight-proven Nova-C VR900 engine
Intuitive Machines wins funding to advance orbital logistics vehicle, 2025-08-05.
- Intuitive Machines has secured a $9.8 million government contract to progress its Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) through Critical Design Review, the final engineering phase before manufacturing begins.
- This Phase Two award expands the company's government work beyond lunar surface delivery and strengthens its role in the growing market for orbital mobility solutions.
- The award is not affiliated with NASA, marking a strategic step by Intuitive Machines to broaden its customer base across commercial, civil, and national security space sectors.
- The vehicle is designed to carry up to 2,100 kilograms of payload and deliver spacecraft to a wide range of destinations, including Medium Earth Orbit, Geostationary Orbit, Lagrange Points, Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit, Low Lunar Orbit, and interplanetary trajectories.
- Part of the company's broader mission delivery portfolio, the OTV complements existing lunar landers, reentry vehicles, and space-based communications systems. Manufacturing and flight integration could begin as early as 2026, supporting emerging needs in the Earth-Moon economy.
Created: 2025-08-30
Updated: 2025-09-06
Product/Service - Zephyr, URV (Universal Re-entry Vechicle)
- Classification
- Cargo Transportation & Landers
- Category
- Transport Service (Re-Entry)
Microgravity Flight Service (Reusable Satellite)
Microgravity Flight Service (LEO)
- Fields
- Spaceplane
Space Capsule
- Status
- Development
- First launch
- Not announced
Zephyr Orbital FabLab and Earth Reentry Vehicle
- Payload Capacity: 150kg
- Payload Volume: 3 ISS Locker Equivalents
- Nominal Mission Duration: 1-6 Weeks
- Maximum Mission Duration: 6 Months
- Launch: Commercial Rideshare
- Landing Loads: < 3g
- Landing Accuracy: < 50m
- A grant up to $10 million from the Space Exploration and Research Fund (“SEARF”).
- This funding supports the development of an Earth reentry vehicle and orbital fabrication lab designed to enable microgravity biomanufacturing and is intended to serve as a critical risk-reduction platform for the Company’s future lunar sample return missions.
- In 2022, Intuitive Machines began initial development of the preliminary design for an Earth reentry vehicle capable of supporting missions returning from low Earth orbit, the Moon, or Mars. As Intuitive Machines refined this technology, it partnered with Rhodium Scientific, for commercial microgravity biomanufacturing in space, where certain materials, processes, and pharmaceuticals can be more efficiently produced or exhibit unique properties not possible on Earth.
- Together, Intuitive Machines and Rhodium Scientific are developing and managing technical approaches to payload integration for both lunar and low Earth orbit missions, including safe reentry through Earth’s atmosphere. The 12-month SEARF phase one effort will assist in advancing the collaboration with Rhodium Scientific and will support spacecraft development through Critical Design Review and the creation of a full-scale ground prototype for customer development.
Zephyr used to be called "Universal Re-entry Vehicle (URV) and payload sizes started at 21.5 kg for the smallest ISS deployed version."
Status Comment
Major re-emergence, renaming and grants in 2025. Was removed from the website as of 2023 and thought to have been cancelled.
Created: 2024-02-24
Updated: 2025-09-06
Sources
Most sources should be linked in the texts and headings as revealed by mouse-over, but here are they listed for visibility.
News, Research, Projects and Patents
| Title | Type | Date | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Space companies face difficult investment environment | News | 2022-10-11 | |
| CLPS - The Start of the Lunar Economy? | Article | 2022-03-13 | |
| For lunar cargo delivery, NASA accepts risk in return for low prices | News | 2021-05-03 | |
| NASA Selects Intuitive Machines to Deliver Lunar Ice Drill in 2022 | News | 2020-10-16 | > NASA has selected Intuitive Machines to deliver the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment (PRIME-1) drill, combined with a mass spectrometer, to the Moon by December 2022. |
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