Intuitive Machines seeks to take over NASA’s VIPER lunar rover

WASHINGTON — Intuitive Machines says it’s organizing a coalition of organizations that may supply to take over a NASA lunar rover mission, launching it on one of many firm’s landers.

In an Aug. 13 earnings name about its second quarter monetary outcomes, Intuitive Machines executives stated they had been planning to answer a request for data (RFI) that NASA issued Aug. 9 searching for enter from corporations and organizations eager about taking up the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission that the company stated in July it might cancel.

Steve Altemus, chief govt of Intuitive Machines, stated on the decision that his firm, which additionally responded to an earlier name for “expressions of curiosity” from NASA concerning VIPER, is working with different corporations, universities and worldwide companions on responding to NASA’s RFI. He didn’t determine any of these potential companions.

“Our place there may be that VIPER science is necessary to lunar scientists and the way forward for the Artemis program, and it’s essential by way of prospecting for volatiles and entrained water ice within the soil,” he stated.

NASA, in its RFI, stated that potential companions could be liable for the prices of any ultimate testing and different work on the rover itself, in addition to delivering it to the lunar floor and working it as soon as there. NASA, in its July 17 announcement that it might cancel VIPER, stated the company would save not less than $84 million by halting work now on the rover, now full and present process environmental testing.

Altemus stated the corporate remains to be working to know what work will likely be left to do on VIPER as soon as NASA ends work on it. “I don’t suppose that the $84 million price range left to go is definitely actual by way of what we’d do commercially,” he stated. “That’s a authorities quantity. That’s not a business quantity, so it’s not that vital, for my part.”

He stated Intuitive Machines would use its bigger Nova-D lander, nonetheless in growth, to ship the 500-kilogram VIPER to the lunar floor. The corporate would search to earn cash on the mission by promoting extra payload capability on Nova-D, which he stated may carry as much as 1,500 kilograms of payload.

“That provides us about 1,000 kilograms of additional payload area to enhance the economics. If we are able to monetize that 1,000 kilograms, that may offset any prices for flying the mission commercially,” he stated.

Responses to the RFI are because of NASA Sept. 2. Altemus stated on the decision that he anticipated to get a response from NASA about it later in September, though the company has not disclosed a timeline for responses or the following steps it’s going to take concerning VIPER. NASA is individually pursuing worldwide partnership potentialities for VIPER.

If Intuitive Machines does get the chance to fly VIPER commercially, he stated he anticipated the corporate to launch it in late 2027. NASA’s plans, as of its July resolution to cancel the mission, projected a launch in September 2025.

Upcoming missions and different alternatives

Intuitive Machines reported income of $41.4 million within the second quarter, greater than double the $18 million the corporate reported in the identical quarter of 2023. It had an working lack of $28.2 million within the quarter, additionally greater than double the $13.2 million working loss it reported in the identical quarter a 12 months in the past.

The corporate attributed the rise in income to new work, similar to a NASA engineering companies contract that began late final 12 months in addition to preliminary work on a Lunar Terrain Car Companies contract the corporate obtained in April.

The elevated losses got here from what Steve Vontur, chief monetary officer, described as “non-cash impacts” to modifications to its subsequent two lunar lander missions, IM-2 and IM-3, each flying payloads for NASA’s Industrial Lunar Payload Companies (CLPS) program.

“Throughout the second quarter, we revised contract income and price estimates to align with these modifications, which resulted in lowered progress in direction of completion,” he stated. “Nevertheless, the modifications diminished schedule uncertainty going ahead on our subsequent two missions.”

One modification, for the IM-2 mission, finalized the touchdown web site for the mission. The corporate stated in July that the brand new touchdown location is an elliptical area 200 meters throughout on the Shackleton Connecting Ridge close to the lunar south pole. That area has favorable terrain, lighting and line-of-sight to the Earth for communications, and what the corporate stated then was “excessive chance of ice stability” inside one meter of the floor that could possibly be accessed by devices on the lander.

Altemus stated within the name that the corporate now anticipated IM-2 to launch in December or early January, barely later than beforehand projected. He stated that slip was as a result of contract modification for adjusting the touchdown web site. As well as, Kennedy Area Heart’s Launch Complicated 39A, required for the launch, might not be accessible earlier than late November due to the deliberate launch in October of NASA’s Europa Clipper and the time to reconfigure the pad afterwards from Falcon Heavy to Falcon 9.

“So we selected to maneuver out of November and give attention to the December-January timeframe for our launch makes an attempt,” he stated.

The subsequent mission, IM-3, will likely be delayed due to “NASA payload supply dates shifting to the suitable,” he stated. The corporate is now projecting that mission to launch in October or November of 2025.

Within the firm’s Kind 10-Q submitting with the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee Aug. 13, the corporate stated the CLPS activity order modification from NASA for the IM-2 mission is value $12.5 million, and brings the estimated income from the mission from NASA and business clients to $122.4 million. The modification for IM-3, to be finalized within the third quarter, is valued at about $10 million, with complete income of $86.9 million as of the top of the second quarter.

The corporate added in that SEC submitting that each the IM-2 and IM-3 missions are in “loss positions.” The loss on IM-2 elevated by $7.1 million within the quarter and IM-3 by $10.9 million, which the corporate blamed on “unfavorable changes” from the duty order modifications.

Altemus stated within the name that he expects NASA to award the following CLPS activity order, CP-22, later this month. The NASA CLPS program supervisor, Chris Culbert, stated on the AIAA ASCEND convention Aug. 1 that the company was “very shut” to awarding that activity order, which might be for a mission to the lunar south polar area.

Intuitive Machines can also be awaiting NASA’s award of contracts for its Close to Area Community Companies (NSNS) program, the place the company will purchase communications companies for missions working withing two million kilometers of the Earth, together with on and across the moon.

“The award for the NSNS contract is imminent, and we imagine Intuitive Machines is uniquely positioned to win and ship orbiting lunar information satellites in assist of autonomously operated infrastructure on and across the moon,” he stated. There are two separate awards, one for direct-to-Earth communications and the opposite for relay companies, that he stated the corporate anticipated to be issued in August or September.

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