Above: Falcon 9 lifts off from Kennedy Space Center.

Mission Details

Mission Name: IM-1

Mission Type: Lunar Lander

COSPAR: Unknown

NSSDCA: IM-1-NOVA

NORAD: N/A

Operator: Intuitive Machines, Inc.

Launching State: United States of America

Location: Malapert A crater

Latitude: 80.13 ° S

Longitude: 1.44 ° E

Launch Date: 15 February 2024, 06:05 UT

Landing Date: 22 February 2024, 23:23:53 UT

Image Source: Above: Intuitive Machines, Above Right: Nasaspaceflight.com, Right: NASA Marshall Flight Center, Right Below: Intuitive Machines

Description

IM-1 was Intuitive Machines’ first mission to the Moon, with the goal of delivering scientific payloads to the lunar south pole under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. These research goals were perhaps outshone by the mission’s intangible impacts on the framework of future space exploration. Mission success would not only represent the first United States flagged soft landing on the moon since 1972, but also the first successful commercial landing on any celestial body.

Intuitive Machines selected SpaceX to launch IM-1 – which took place on February 15th, 2024 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center. The Nova-C lander, called Odysseus, landed on the Moon on February 22nd. Unfortunately, Intuitive Machines would later discover that landing gear broke upon impact, inducing the lander to be resting on a 30-degree angle with respect to the horizontal. Despite this mishap, the lander remained operational, and was able to transmit some data from the scientific payloads.

Odysseus powered down on February 28th in anticipation of the lunar night, efforts to contact the lander on the following lunar day were unsuccessful.

Read more:
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=IM-1-NOVA

Above: Lander photographed pre-launch.

Below: Photograph from Odysseus showing the lean of the lander with respect to the lunar surface.

Heritage Consideration

IM-1 was the first commercial lunar lander to successfully land on the Moon.