Intuitive Machines said earlier this week it was delaying the launch of its first lunar lander to mid-February in coordination with launch provider SpaceX. The Houston, Texas-based company said the new launch window "comes after adverse weather conditions resulted in changes to SpaceX's launch manifest."
The new launch target date, a full month later than the original Jan. 12-16 date, was dictated by the mission profile: Intuitive Machines' Nova-C spacecraft aims to land near the moon's south pole, requiring specific light conditions that only occur a handful of days each month.
The company is also limited by the availability of launch infrastructure. The lunar lander must be launched from a specific launch site, 39A, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center because it needs to be filled with oxygen and methane propellant before launch. The pad is the only one equipped with a tower to allow the lander to access the pad for refueling.
Nova-C's original launch time was to land on the moon around January 19 or shortly thereafter, as the lander will use a direct orbit to reach the moon. While Intuitive Machines has not specified the exact launch date, it is increasingly likely that it will coincide with the planned landing of another privately developed lunar lander. The lander, Astrobotic's Peregrine, is scheduled to land on the moon on February 23 - which means we may see two privately developed U.S. spacecraft land on the lunar surface in the same week.
Both landers were developed as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which solicits commercial landers for delivering science and research payloads to the lunar surface. As part of its first mission, Nova-C will carry six payloads for NASA, and it has been awarded two additional CLPS lunar cargo transportation contracts.
Overall, the new launch window represents a negligible delay for Intuitive Machines as the company aims to make getting to the moon a cornerstone of its business. Intuitive Machines, which announced last September that it would go public through a merger with a shell company, expects to generate $279 million in revenue from lander services next year alone, according to a presentation released at the time.
Intuitive Machines is also building business units related to orbital services such as satellite servicing and refueling, providing data services to the moon and selling other space products.