IM-1 mission on course for the moon after engine test

WASHINGTON– The IM-1 objective by Intuitive Machines is on track to try a landing on the moon later on today after carrying out an in-flight test of its primary engine.

The business revealed late Feb. 16 that it fired the primary engine of its Nova-C lander in a commissioning maneuver. The test was the very first shooting of the engine, which utilizes liquid oxygen and methane propellants, Given that its launch early Feb. 15 on a Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space.

That test was initially set up for about 18 hours after liftoff. The business stated earlier Feb. 16 it delayed the maneuver after discovering it took longer than anticipated to chill the liquid oxygen feed line. The business likewise blamed periodic interactions with the lander for the hold-up.

User-friendly Machines stated in the statement of the engine shooting that it would take the next 8 hours to examine the information from the burn. The business’s next objective upgrade, however, did not come till the night of Feb. 18. It stated then that the lander remained in “exceptional health” which controllers were preparing trajectory correction maneuvers. The objective consists of approximately 3 such maneuvers to change the spacecraft’s course to the moon.

Finishing the commissioning maneuver that showed the efficiency of the primary engine, which will be utilized to put the spacecraft into lunar orbit and, later on, arrive at the moon, was a significant turning point for the objective.

“Once we survive that and we understand how the engine carries out in area, I believe our self-confidence really increases that we will have an effective landing on the moon,” Trent Martin, vice president of area systems at Intuitive Machines, stated of that engine test in a Feb. 12 interview.

The IM-1 objective is bring 6 NASA payloads as part of the company’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program under a $118 million job order. It is likewise bring 6 payloads for other clients, varying from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to the artist Jeff Koons.

The Houston-based business stated Feb. 18 that the spacecraft stays on track to go into orbit around the moon Feb. 21, followed by a landing effort on the afternoon of Feb. 22, although the business has actually not divulged particular times for either occasion. If the spacecraft lands effectively, it is created to run for about a week up until the sun sets at its landing website, a place near the Malapert A crater in the south polar area of the moon.

User-friendly Machines, which went public a year ago after combining with an unique function acquisition business, has actually seen its share cost spike with the launch. The business’s shared closed at $7.32 Feb. 16, up almost 47% from a week previously. The share cost has actually almost tripled given that completion of 2023 and has actually gone back to levels last seen in August 2023.