WASHINGTON — Intuitive Machines and SpaceX have confirmed plans to launch the IM-1 lunar lander mission as quickly as Feb. 14, pending a fueling check on the pad later this week.
In a Feb. 5 assertion, Intuitive Machines introduced it was focusing on a launch of its lander in a “multi-day window” that opens Feb. 14. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 from Kennedy House Middle’s Launch Advanced 39A is scheduled for 12:57 a.m. Jap that day.
The announcement got here hours after a SpaceX official, talking at a briefing in regards to the upcoming launch of NASA’s PACE Earth science mission on one other Falcon 9, confirmed that Feb. 14 date, which had been broadly identified within the trade however which neither NASA nor Intuitive Machines would disclose at a Jan. 31 briefing in regards to the company’s payloads on the lander.
“Our Intuitive Machines launch is focusing on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day,” stated Julianna Scheiman, director of civil satellite tv for pc missions at SpaceX, on the Feb. 5 briefing. “We’re monitoring properly to a Feb. 14 launch.”
One ultimate milestone earlier than that launch is a fueling check, or moist gown rehearsal, scheduled for Feb. 7. That’s vital for IM-1 for the reason that lander must be loaded with liquid oxygen and methane propellants whereas on the launch pad shortly earlier than launch, a process that required modifications to the infrastructure at LC-39A.
“We’ll be performing primarily a tanking check, or moist gown rehearsal, for that spacecraft on Feb. 7,” she stated, to substantiate that the spacecraft might be fueled on the pad.
Whereas Intuitive Machines stated in its assertion that it had a multi-day window, Scheiman stated the mission had a three-day window, with launch alternatives Feb. 14 by 16. Intuitive Machines beforehand said {that a} launch any day in that window would arrange a touchdown try on Feb. 22.
The 675-kilogram lander, referred to as Odysseus by the corporate, is carrying six payloads for NASA by a Business Lunar Payload Companies (CLPS) award valued at $118 million. It’s also carrying six industrial payloads, starting from sportswear firm Columbia to artist Jeff Koons. The industrial payloads additionally embody Eaglecam, a digicam developed by college students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical College that may eject from the lander throughout its ultimate descent to the floor to aim to {photograph} the touchdown.
If IM-1 is profitable, will probably be the primary non-public mission to land softly on the moon after three earlier failed makes an attempt. The Beresheet lander by Israel’s SpaceIL crashed throughout its descent to the lunar floor in 2019, and the HAKUTO-R M1 lander from Japanese firm ispace crashed making an attempt a touchdown in April 2023. Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander suffered a propellant leak hours after its Jan. 8 launch that prevented the spacecraft from making an attempt a lunar touchdown.
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