Intuitive Machines Wins $78M NASA Task Order to Deploy Lunar Research Payloads

Intuitive Machines has received a $77.5 million task order to help NASA send four payloads to the moon’s surface sometime in 2024 on an Artemis mission to study the lunar surface feature known as Reiner Gamma.

NASA said Thursday that Intuitive Machines will be responsible for integrating, transporting and operating the hardware on a Nova-C lander the company will build to carry the studies.

The new task order marks the third for Houston-based spacecraft maker under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract vehicle.

For the first order, awarded in May 2019 and valued at $77 million, the company will fly up to five payloads to the moon that will examine a dark spot called Oceanus Procellarum.

The agency intends for Intuitive Machines’ lander to bring 203 pounds of cargo containing the Lunar Vertex magnetic field measurement system, Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration mobile robots, MoonLIGHT laser retroreflector and Lunar Space Environment Monitor.

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