Intuitive Machines to Provide Spacecraft Platform & Mission Solutions for NASA’s EAGLE-VSWIR Mission
EAGLE-VSWIR will fly on the IM 300TM spacecraft bus and is targeted for launch in 2028.
(Houston, Texas) Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR) announced this morning (Aug. 18) that it has been selected by NASA’s Southern California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory to provide the spacecraft platform, system-level integration, and mission solutions for EAGLE-VSWIR, an Earth observation mission under NASA’s Earth Science Division.
Rendering of EAGLE-VSWIR on the IM 300TM spacecraft courtesy of Intuitive Machines.
EAGLE-VSWIR – which stands for ‘Explorer for Artemis Geology, Lunar, and Earth – Visible to Shortwave Infrared’) will fly on the IM 300TM spacecraft bus and is targeted for launch in 2028, according to today’s press release from Intuitive Machines.
Per Intuitive Machines, the mission will be equipped with a hyperspectral visible to shortwave infrared (VSWIR) instrument designed to perform surface biology and geology observations from Earth orbit while demonstrating technologies that could support future lunar and Mars exploration missions.
The award marks the second NASA low Earth orbit science mission Intuitive Machines is supporting; IM was previously selected to provide an IM 500 spacecraft bus and system-level integration for NASA’s EDGE (Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer) mission.
"NASA’s science missions are being asked to deliver faster and inside tighter cost caps, and that is exactly the problem our platforms solve," said Anand Mahendra, Chief Growth Officer, Intuitive Machines. "Our Build, Connect, Operate model puts spacecraft manufacturing at scale behind Intuitive Machines’ mission systems and integration expertise. Earth science is a natural extension of the same capability we bring to our commercial, civil, and national security customers."
