San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Intuitive Machines lunar lander’s launch delayed
A busy launch schedule at NASA's Kennedy Space Center will delay the inaugural flight of Intuitive Machines' lunar lander, pushing the Houston company's launch window back two months to Jan. 12.
“There are inherent challenges of lunar missions,” Intuitive Machines co-founder and CEO Steve Altemus said in a news release, “schedule changes and mission adjustments are a natural consequence of pioneering lunar exploration. Receiving a launch window and the required approvals to fly is a remarkable achievement, and the schedule adjustment is a small price to pay for making history.”
The Nova-C lunar lander will launch from Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It previously was expected to launch in midNovember, positioning it to become the first commercial spacecraft to make a controlled soft landing on the moon.
Nova-C could still claim those accolades. But the two-month delay puts a competitor, Pittsburghbased Astrobotic Technology and its Peregrine lander, back in the race. Peregrine is poised to launch Dec. 24 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station atop United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket. The Astrobotic website says the lander could take between three and 33 days to reach the moon. Peregrine would then spend another four to 25 days in orbit before landing on the lunar surface.
Astrobotic could not be reached Friday afternoon for a more precise timeline should it launch Dec. 24. Intuitive Machines' lander takes a more direct path to the moon, reaching lunar orbit about five days after liftoff and landing the following day.
“We aren't familiar with our competitors' approach to landing on the moon; however, Intuitive Machines is flying a direct path to the moon, similar to the Apollo missions,” Altemus said in an email.
Intuitive Machines was founded in 2013 and has spent the past four years building its Nova-C lander.
Both Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic are building landers through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The agency is partnering with these companies — and others — to build landers that will take both NASA and commercial payloads to the moon. Ultimately, NASA wants to be one of many customers for commercial companies that own and operate space hardware.