SpaceX and Intuitive Machines are preparing to launch the Nova-C private moon lander in February 2024. The launch will take place during a three-day window in mid-February from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Nova-C spacecraft was encapsulated in the payload fairing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle on January 31, 2024

If the launch cannot occur in February, the next opportunity will be in March. The Nova-C’s lunar landing attempt will take place on February 22, regardless of the launch date

Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander is expected to lift off in mid-February, though the target window has not yet been announced. A private lunar lander has taken another step toward its historic moonshot

Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander is expected to launch in mid-February 2024, but the target window has not yet been announced. The lander will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

The Nova-C lander is a six-legged, 14-foot-tall (4-meter-tall) lander that will target the moon’s south polar region. It will carry five experiments for NASA that will last about two weeks. The company is targeting 80 degrees south latitude for touchdown. 

The mid-February launch window is the next available opportunity to launch the IM-1 mission. The IM-1 mission requires specific lighting conditions that are only available for a handful of days each month.

Intuitive Machines and SpaceX are scheduled to launch a private moon lander in mid-February 2024. The robotic spacecraft will be carried to Earth orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Once in orbit, the spacecraft’s cryogenic propulsion system will propel it to the moon

The lander, called Nova-C, will carry NASA science and commercial payloads. It will target the moon’s south polar region. The Nova-C lander is six-legged and 14 feet tall. 

Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission will be the first commercial lunar lander and the first US spacecraft to land on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972

The coming mission, called IM-1, aims to put Nova-C down near an impact crater called Malapert A, which lies within 10 degrees latitude of the moon’s south pole. This area is of great interest to scientists and exploration advocates, for it’s thought to harbor large amounts of water ice

Nova-C is a lunar lander designed by the publicly-traded American company Intuitive Machines to deliver small commercial payloads to the surface of the Moon

Intuitive Machines was one of nine commercial landing service providers selected by NASAin November 2018 to submit bids for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Nova-C is one of the lunar landers that will be built and launched under that program. The first Nova-C lander is manifested on the IM-1 mission to be launched in February 2024, with a second lander on the IM-2 mission and a third one on the IM-3 mission to follow later. All three landers will launch on SpaceX‘s Falcon 9 launch vehicle

Selection

Nova-C was selected in May 2019 for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services as one of the first three landers of this program, tasked with delivering small payloads to explore and test technologies to process some natural resources of the Moon. NASA awarded Intuitive Machines US$77 million for building and launching Nova‑C.

Launch

The IM-1 mission Odysseus is scheduled for launch in February 2024. The Nova-Cspacecraft for IM-1 was encapsulated in the payload fairing of a SpaceX Falcon launch vehicle on 31 January 2024. Several days before the launch a wet dress rehearsal loading Nova‑C with propellants will take place.

Payloads

For the IM-1 mission Nova‑C named Odysseuswill carry up to five NASA-sponsored instruments. The lander will also carry payloads from other customers, including EagleCAM. The lander will operate for one lunar day, which is equivalent to about 14 Earth days. The planned landing site has changed several times. At one point it was to land between Mare Serenitatis and Mare Crisium. As of February 2023, the site will be at Malapert A near the lunar south pole.

DOGE-1 and EagleCAM will be deployed as secondary payloads. The DOGE-1 payload has a mass of 40 kg and was paid for with Dogecoin

Intuitive Machines has designed some airborne drones and spacecraft, including the Universal Reentry Vehicle (URV), the Nova-C lunar lander, and other flight instrument systems.

In November 2018, it was selected by NASA as one of the 9 companies granted the right to bid on the Commercial Lunar Payload Servicesprogram (CLPS).Their lander, Nova-C, will be proposed to NASA’s CLPS as the first lander of this program, that is focused on the exploration and use of natural resources of the Moon.

On 31 May 2019, NASA announced it had awarded Intuitive Machines $77 million to build and launch their Nova-C Moon lander.

On 13 April 2020, Intuitive Machines, under contract to carry NASA science instruments to the Moon on a privately developed robotic spacecraft, said that its first commercial lunar mission would target landing near a deep, narrow valley named Vallis Schröteri.

On January 30, 2024, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a Northrup Grumman Cygnus spacecraft carrying a surgical robot to the orbital laboratory. This was the first time a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a Cygnus spacecraft for Northrop Grumman

The Nova-C IM-1 mission is scheduled for launch in February 2024.  The mission is part of the CLPS program and will carry NASA payloads.  The Nova-C lander is a hexagonal cylinder that is 4 meters tall and 1.57 meters wide. It has a launch mass of 1908 kg and can carry about 100 kg of payload to the surface. 

The Nova-C lander will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5) rocket. Intuitive Machines has named the Nova-C lander Odysseus

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