A company earnings call on Thursday said that Intuitive Machines’ second trip to the moon is still on track to launch before the end of the year. This is because the company only needed to make small changes to the design of the lunar lander.
This year, the company made history when it was the first business to put a spacecraft on the moon’s surface. There were some problems with that operation, called IM-1. The lander came in a little too hot and flipped over on the surface, but it did test the lander’s main parts, engine, and other systems.
The company calls this type of lander Nova-C. It will be going back to the moon later this year for a second trip. Importantly, the IM-2 mission will send NASA payloads to the South Pole of the moon to look for water ice. This is a resource that could one day be used to power rockets or to support a stable astronaut habitat on the moon.
During the earnings call, CEO Steve Altemus said that the Intuitive Machines team found “a handful of adjustments” that will be made to the second lander.
His words, “We really don’t see any impacts to the schedule based on the changes from IM-1,” “They’re pretty straightforward.”
He also said that the company would be making changes to the laser sight switch system that would make it work better. The lander’s laser rangefinders are part of its tracking system and help figure out things like its height and speed. They found out very late in the game that the first lander’s laser rangefinders didn’t work because engineers forgot to turn on a physical switch on the part while it was still on the ground. (They were able to land the spaceship anyway because they thought quickly.)
NASA is still working out the details of where the second mission will land. It will be on a hill near the Shackleton crater at the south pole of the moon. When the space agency first stated where the IM-2 mission’s landing site would be, they said that data from the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft showed that there might be ice below the surface.
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, Intuitive Machines had made $30.6 million in sales but only $4.5 million in cash on hand. An intuitive investor exercised $50.6 million in warrants, and the company closed a $10 million strategic stock investment. These events gave that number a big boost.
The investments made by the company caused its cash balance to grow to almost $55 million on March 1. This was the highest balance “relative to any quarter-end” since the company went public in February 2023.
Also Read: After the Lander Flips Over, Intuitive Machines’ Journey to the Moon Will Have to End Early
Aside from the second mission to the moon, 2024 is expected to be a very important year for the company. They are still waiting to hear about NASA awards that could be very profitable. That includes the award for the Lunar Terrain Vehicle, which NASA will make public early next month, as well as the next deal for a lunar lander through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme.
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