UPDATE: Wednesday’s launch attempt has scrubbed due to “off-nominal methane temperatures prior to stepping into methane load“. SpaceX is now targeting launch on Thursday, February 15th at 1:05 a.m. ET. Live broadcast will begin about 45 minutes prior to launch at 12:20 a.m. ET.
Intuitive Machines is ready to launch its lunar lander to the Moon as part of the IM-1 mission for NASA’s CLPS program. The Odysseus spacecraft is launching onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A in Florida no earlier than February 14, 12:57 am ET.
NASA and SpaceX will provide live coverage of the launch on NASA TV, the NASA website, Intuitive Machine’s website, and SpaceX’s X account beginning at 12:15 am ET.
The IM-1 mission will land Intuitive Machine’s Nova-C lunar lander, called Odysseus, on the south pole of the Moon. IM-1 is taking six NASA payloads to the surface of the Moon as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, program ahead of the next Artemis mission. An additional six commercial payloads are onboard from companies like Columbia Sportswear and artwork from Jeff Koons.
The NASA science and tech demo payloads will look at everything from lunar soil and the plasma environment on the lunar surface to improvements to guidance and controlled landing navigation. Each of these payloads goes a long way to inform future missions to the Moon.
After launch, Odysseus will take a nine-day journey to the south pole of the Moon, soft landing at Malapert A, an impact crater near a potential landing site for the Artemis III mission. Odysseus will carry out the science and tech demonstrations on the lunar surface for a week before the lander runs out of power.
In addition to watching the launch of Odysseus, NASA invites the public to follow the IM-1 mission to the Moon virtually and collect a launch stamp in a virtual NASA passport. You can register for the mission here: NASA Virtual Guest Program
