HOUSTON, TX – March 7, 2025 – Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) (“Intuitive Machines”) (“Company”), a leading space exploration, infrastructure, and services company, has announced the IM-2 mission lunar lander, Athena, landed 250 meters from its intended landing site in the Mons Mouton region of the lunar south pole, inside of a crater. This was the southernmost lunar landing and surface operations ever achieved.

Images downlinked from Athena on the lunar surface confirmed that Athena was on her side. After landing, mission controllers were able to accelerate several program and payload milestones, including NASA’s PRIME-1 suite, before the lander’s batteries depleted.

With the direction of the sun, the orientation of the solar panels, and extreme cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to recharge. The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission.

This southern pole region is lit by harsh sun angles and limited direct communication with the Earth. This area has been avoided due to its rugged terrain and Intuitive Machines believes the insights and achievements from IM-2 will open this region for further space exploration.

About Intuitive Machines

Intuitive Machines is a diversified space exploration, infrastructure, and services company focused on fundamentally disrupting lunar access economics. In 2024, Intuitive Machines successfully landed the Company’s Nova-C class lunar lander, Odysseus, on the Moon, returning the United States to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. The Company’s products and services are offered through its four in-space business units: Lunar Access Services, Orbital Services, Lunar Data Services, and Space Products and Infrastructure. For more information, please visit intuitivemachines.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These statements that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward looking. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “strive,” “would,” “strategy,” “outlook,” the negative of these words or other similar expressions, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. These forward-looking statements include but are not limited to statements regarding: our expectations, results and plans relating to our second mission to the Moon, including the outcome of the completion and status of the surface operations on the second lunar mission. These forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s predictions, projections, or expectations based upon currently available information and data. Our actual results, performance or achievements may differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The following important factors and uncertainties, among others, could cause actual outcomes or results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements in this press release: any delayed launches, launch failures, failure of our satellites or lunar landers to reach their planned orbital locations, risks associated with commercial spaceflight, including any accident on launch or during the journey into space; risks associated with the handling, production and disposition of potentially explosive and ignitable energetic materials and other dangerous chemicals in our operations; failure of our products to operate in the expected manner or defects in our sub-systems; failure to comply with various laws and regulations relating to various aspects of our business; and other public filings and press releases other factors detailed under the section titled Part I, Item 2, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and the section titled Part II. Item 1A. “Risk Factors” in our most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q our Current Reports on Form 8-K, and in our subsequent filings with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release and current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks, and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

Contacts

For investor inquiries:

investors@intuitivemachines.com

For media inquiries:

press@intuitivemachines.com

Approximately three hours after the spacecraft lands on the Moon, NASA and Intuitive Machines will discuss the Intuitive Machines-2 mission, its technology demonstrations, and science opportunities.

Participants in the news conference include: • Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters • Clayton Turner, associate administrator, Space Technology Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters • Steve Altemus, CEO, Intuitive Machines • Tim Crain, chief growth officer, Intuitive Machines The IM-2 mission is part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign to establish a long-term lunar presence. Credit: NASA

Descent Orbit Insertion Complete

Athena completed Descent Orbit Insertion at 4:33 a.m. CST. Right now, flight controllers are gathering data and checking the lander’s landing systems for accuracy.

Intuitive Machines is still planning on an 11:30 a.m. CST landing time.

Athena continues to be in excellent health in Low Lunar Orbit (LLO). She’s completed 24 of her 39 orbits, waiting for the sun to rise on her Mons Mouton landing site.

Live landing coverage is scheduled to start on March 6 at 10:30 a.m. CST / 11:30 a.m. EST on the Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission page and NASA+. The content on both streams is identical.

Flight controllers confirmed that Athena completed lunar orbit insertion with enough accuracy to forego the IM-2 mission's optional lunar correction maneuver.

Athena continues to be in excellent health, completing lunar orbits every two hours, waiting for the sun to rise on her intended south pole region landing site, Mons Mouton.

Athena’s next planned maneuver is Descent Orbit Insertion (DOI), which is designed to lower her orbit to make a landing attempt at 11:32 on March 6.

Live landing coverage is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. CST / 11:30 a.m. EST on the Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission page and NASA+. The content on both streams is identical. (4MAR2025 1726 CST)

Athena continues to be in excellent health in lunar orbit. Overnight, flight controllers calibrated Athena’s landing navigation cameras, which are designed to autonomously track her position and detect hazards during landing.

This image sequence is from a separate public affairs camera and is made up of 240 images taken over a mid-latitude region over a 10-minute span. Each picture is shown as one camera frame.

For reference, Athena captured this image sequence over the Moon's south pole region near her intended landing site, Mons Mouton—one of NASA's designated human landing sites for the Artemis campaign.

Athena is still targeting a landing opportunity on March 6 at 11:32 a.m. CST. Live landing coverage is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. CST / 11:30 a.m. EST on the Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission page and NASA+. The content on both streams is identical.

Athena successfully entered her intended circular orbit around the Moon on March 3.

Flight controllers expect Athena to complete 39 lunar orbits until her south pole region landing site has adequate sunlight to power surface operations.

Intuitive Machines expects a landing opportunity on March 6 at 11:32 a.m. CST. Live landing coverage is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. CT / 11:30 a.m. ET on the Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission page and NASA+. The content on both streams is identical.

For additional IM-2 mission images, click here.

Athena completed her scheduled 492-second main engine Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) burn at 6:27 a.m. CST on March 3 and is currently orbiting the Moon. Over the next several hours, flight controllers plan to analyze data to verify the lander’s targeted circular orbit and confirm Athena’s expected landing time.

Athena continues to be in excellent health and is expected to send lunar orbit selfies over the next two days before a landing attempt on March 6.

Joined by legendary NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz, Intuitive Machines flight controllers commanded Athena’s third and final planned Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) at 12:18 p.m. CST on March 2 to refine the lander’s trajectory ahead of Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI).

Athena is now prepared for her scheduled March 3 LOI maneuver, the longest main engine firing to date. She continues to be in excellent health.

Athena completed her second planned Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) at 11:00 a.m. CT on March 1, to refine the lander’s trajectory ahead of Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI).

Athena performed as planned across all her systems. The main engine TCM gave flight controllers the desired delta V to converge on Athena’s next planned maneuver.

So far, Athena has downlinked 4x the amount of data than the entire IM-1 mission. This includes vehicle health, science, and photos like the one she took this morning.

Athena is approximately 152,104 km from the Moon and continues to be in excellent health. Last night, she sent a sequence of photos while using the stars to determine her position in space.

During transit, flight controllers checked on the Micro Nova Hopper, Grace, and verified she was in good health ahead of a challenging mission into a lunar crater.

Our flight controllers used the Company’s Lunar Data Network to command Athena’s first planned Trajectory Correction maneuver (TCM) at 11:00 a.m. CT on February 28, 2025, to refine the lander’s trajectory ahead of Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI).

Data from the 6-second full-thrust mainstage engine burn confirmed Athena hit her 9.5 m/s target with approximately .38 m/s accuracy. Propulsion mixture ratios, mass flow rate, and temperature were as predicted. The TCM was nominal per expectations. Athena continues to be in excellent health and is closer to the Moon now than the Earth.

Athena is approximately halfway to the Moon and continues to communicate with our flight controllers in Houston. Our flight controllers are preparing for the mission’s next milestones, Trajectory Correction Maneuvers (TCM). TCMs are intended to refine Athena’s trajectory ahead of lunar orbit insertion.

Intuitive Machines intends to continue publishing mission updates on X and the IM-2 mission webpage.

After liftoff on February 26, Athena established a stable attitude, solar charging, and radio communications contact with our mission operations center in Houston. The lander is in excellent health, sending selfies and preparing for a series of main engine firings to refine her trajectory ahead of lunar orbit insertion, planned on March 3. Intuitive Machines is targeting a lunar landing opportunity on March 6.

Read the full press release here.

Download IM-2 mission images here.

Intuitive Machines and SpaceX have analyzed the data from the lunar lander fueling test for the IM-2 mission and determined the testing campaign is complete.

Liftoff of the IM-2 mission is targeted for a multi-day launch window that opens at 7:16:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on February 26, 2025, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The IM-2 mission Nova-C class lunar lander, Athena, completed all integration milestones and is safely encapsulated within SpaceX’s payload fairing in preparation for launch.

In coordination with SpaceX, launch of the Company’s IM-2 mission is targeted for a multi-day launch window that opens no earlier than February 26 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Read More

Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) (“Intuitive Machines” or the “Company”), a space exploration, infrastructure, and services company, announced that it has delivered its IM-2 mission lunar lander, named Athena, to Cape Canaveral, Florida following a historic southeast Texas snowfall. “Each lunar mission builds on the last, and Athena’s arrival in Florida demonstrates our dedication to delivering on the Company’s vision to providing a reliable cadence of lunar delivery services,” said Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus. “This commitment to flying missions reinforces our broader efforts of developing a heavy cargo lander, establishing a lunar data relay satellite constellation, and providing sustainable infrastructure services at the Moon to enable further exploration of the solar system.” In coordination with SpaceX, the liftoff of the IM-2 lunar mission is targeted for a four-day launch window that opens no earlier than February 26. In case of unfavorable launch conditions, such as inclement weather, backup opportunities will be determined based on the lunar blackout window and other factors. Commanded using Intuitive Machines’ commercial Lunar Data Network, IM-2 will be the Company’s second of four manifested lunar missions as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (“CLPS”) initiative. Through the CLPS initiative and Artemis campaign, NASA is leveraging American companies to send scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to the Moon, advancing our understanding of the Moon and planetary processes, while paving the way for future crewed missions. Athena’s mission is designed to validate resource prospecting, mobility, and communications infrastructure in the Moon’s Mons Mouton region, one of nine potential Artemis III landing sites.

Today Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) (“Intuitive Machines”) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK, Euronext: NOKIA) announced the successful final integration of Nokia’s Lunar Surface Communication System (“LSCS”) into the IM-2 mission lander, named Athena. Athena and the LSCS will voyage to the lunar south pole region in the upcoming IM-2 mission, where Nokia and Intuitive Machines intend to deploy the first cellular network on the Moon.

After months of testing and validation with Nokia Bell Labs, Intuitive Machines engineers installed the LSCS “network in a box” to one of Athena’s upper carbon-composite panels. Multiple precautions were taken during the installation to help ensure that the network will safely make the 239,000-mile journey to the Moon, survive the stresses of take-off and landing, and operate optimally on the lunar surface. Each of the 14 mounting points is thermally isolated to keep the network insulated from the extremely low temperatures of deep space. Intuitive Machines also integrated the network into Athena’s Thermal Protection System. This system will expel heat when the network is operating, and it will supply heat to protect the network when it is idle.

Two device modules make up additional components of Nokia’s LSCS, and they have been installed in two lunar mobility vehicles: Intuitive Machines’ Micro-Nova Hopper and Lunar Outpost’s Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover. Upon landing on the Moon, the two vehicles are designed to deploy on the lunar surface where they would immediately use the Nokia device modules to establish connections to the network on Athena.

The LSCS utilizes the same 4G/LTE cellular technology used by billions of devices on Earth, though Nokia Bell Labs reconceptualized the system to meet the unique requirements of a lunar mission. The network is engineered to handle surface connectivity between the lander and vehicles, carrying high-definition video streaming, command-and-control communications and telemetry data. Intuitive Machines expects to relay data from the LSCS back to Earth using its direct-to-Earth data transmission service.

“We intend to prove that cellular technologies can provide the reliable, high-capacity and efficient connectivity needed for future crewed and uncrewed missions to the Moon and eventually Mars,” said Thierry E. Klein, President of Bell Labs Solutions Research at Nokia. “Cellular technology has irrevocably transformed the way we communicate on Earth. There’s no reason it can’t do the same for communications on other worlds.”

Nokia Bell Labs developed the LSCS and Intuitive Machines created the Micro-Nova Hopper in partnership with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate via its Tipping Point initiative, which funds industry-developed space technologies that can foster the development of commercial space capabilities and benefit future NASA missions. One of the goals of Intuitive Machines’ second lunar mission will be to use the Micro-Nova Hopper and the LSCS to test new sensor instruments that could help identify and map precious resources on the Moon, like water ice. The Micro-Nova Hopper, named Grace, is designed to descend into permanently shadowed lunar craters. There it may use these new sensors to scan for large concentrations of hydrogen, which are indicative of ice deposits. All data collected by the Micro-Nova would then be transmitted over the Nokia network to Athena, where it would be relayed back to Earth.

The Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover was developed by Lunar Outpost. Once on the lunar surface, the MAPP rover is designed to exit from a protective enclosure on Athena, extend its antennas, and establish a connection to Nokia’s cellular network on Athena. The MAPP rover will then begin a multi-day journey exploring the Moon's south pole region, mapping the lunar surface while collecting stereo imagery and vital environmental data along the way.

“We believe delivering Nokia’s 4G/LTE system to the lunar surface is a transformative moment in the commercialization of space and the maturity of the lunar economy,” said Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus. “We’re taking thoughtful steps to achieve sustainability. Whether it’s Nokia connecting surface assets, or Intuitive Machines’ ability to transmit that data back to Earth and establish lunar data relay satellites, these innovations are mainstay capabilities we believe will define the Artemis generation, and they were initiated through NASA leadership.”

Launch of Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander is targeted for no earlier than late February from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) (“Intuitive Machines”) (“Company”), a leading space exploration, infrastructure, and services company, has qualified the VR900 engine for its IM-2 lunar mission, which also advances the development of the Company’s VR3500 engine for larger cargo class landers.

Designed, 3D-printed, and tested in-house, the IM-2 VR900 engine completed a full-duration hot-fire test that confirmed increased engine performance utilizing efficient design modifications. Intuitive Machines engineers are applying the design modifications and quality processes to its larger engine system while completing the IM-2 mission lander’s final assembly.

The scalable VR900 engine uses an environmentally friendly mix of liquid oxygen and methane (“LOx/LCH4”) to support science and discovery payload deliveries to the Moon. Intuitive Machines first validated the proprietary propulsion system through the first-ever deep space ignition, followed by multiple restarts, repeatedly providing successful spacecraft maneuvers on the IM-1 mission in February 2024.

“From the outset, our goal was to pioneer the industry’s first deep space scalable LOx/LCH4 engine to meet the immediate demand for science and discover-class lunar missions,” said Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus. “This validated engine design meets current mission demand and paves the way for our VR3500 engine for cargo delivery such as lunar terrain vehicles, human spaceflight cargo resupply, and other infrastructure delivery. We believe we’re in a prime position to build on our successful development and apply that technology toward current contracts and future lunar requirements for infrastructure delivery.”

Intuitive Machines is completing a $30 million Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services Feasibility Assessment as the prime contractor. The contract tasks the Company’s global team with creating a feasibility roadmap to develop, deploy, and operate a Lunar Terrain Vehicle on the Moon using the Company’s cargo-class lunar landers. The $1+ billion contract down select is expected in mid-2025.

In 2020, Intuitive Machines successfully test-fired its VR3500 cargo class lander engine, breaking the continuous test duration record of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center’s Test Stand 115. Intuitive Machines previously held the record with a 360-second test firing of the same engine. The VR3500 development and testing were performed on contract for a human landing system architecture studies and technology prototypes contract.