NASA selects Intuitive Machines for lunar communications and navigation services

PARIS — Intuitive Machines has won a NASA contract worth up to $4.8 billion to provide communications and navigation services at the moon to support the Artemis lunar exploration campaign.

NASA announced Sept. 17 it awarded a contract to Intuitive Machines to support its Near Space Network, an existing system that provides communications services for NASA missions in Earth orbit and cislunar space. The award, formally known as Subcategory 2.2 GEO to Cislunar Relay Services, has a maximum value if all options are exercised of $4.82 billion.

The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract has an initial five-year base period that begins Oct. 1, with an option for a second five-year period. The agency did not disclose how much had been initially obligated under the contract.

The initial task order on the contract will support “the progressive validation of lunar relay capabilities/services” that NASA intends to use to support Artemis. Those services would be used by robotic and crewed lunar lander mission and other spacecraft, including lunar rovers.

Those capabilities, the agency said, will reduce dependence on the Deep Space Network. That network of antennas, already overtaxed supporting robotic missions beyond cislunar space, was further overloaded supporting the Artemis 1 flight in 2022, curtailing access for those other missions.

“This contract marks an inflection point in Intuitive Machines’ leadership in space communications and navigation,” Steve Altemus, chief executive of Intuitive Machines, said in a statement. “We’re pleased to partner with NASA, as one team, to support the Artemis campaign and endeavors to expand the lunar economy.”

Neither NASA nor Intuitive Machines provided details about how the company will provide those services beyond the use of satellites in lunar orbit. The company previous said it was working with York Space Systems to develop a line of satellites called Khon to provide those services.

NASA did not immediately disclose how many proposals it received for this contract. Several companies have expressed an interest in developing lunar relay services, working either with NASA or the European Space Agency’s Moonlight initiative.

Among them is Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), which is building the Lunar Pathfinder spacecraft as a precursor for Moonlight. That spacecraft will fly to the moon on Firefly Aerospace’s second lunar lander mission, part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, in 2026.

“We’re going to need more than one system in the lunar economy,” said Sir Martin Sweeting, founder and executive chairman of SSTL, of lunar communications and navigation systems during a panel Sept. 18 at World Space Business Week here, comparing them to navigation systems like GPS and Galileo. “In the future, what we need to make sure is that there is interoperability.”

Related