Intuitive Machines Qualifies VR900 Engine, Advances Cargo Class Lander Development

(Houston, Texas) Space exploration, infrastructure and services company Intuitive Machines, Inc. (NASDAQ: LUNR) announced today that it has qualified the VR900 engine for its upcoming IM-2 lunar mission (scheduled in 4Q2024), thereby advancing the development of the Company’s VR3500 engine for larger cargo class landers.

Engine test photo courtesy of Intuitive Machines.

The IM-2 VR900 engine – which is designed, 3D-printed and testing in-house by Intuitive Machines (IM) – completed a full-duration hot-fire test that confirmed increased engine performance utilizing efficient design modifications, per today’s press release from IM.

Intuitive Machines 2, or IM-2 (TO PRIME-1) is an upcoming lunar mission for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative – in which NASA contracts with a commercial partner – that is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in the fourth quarter of this year; the mission will utilize a Nova-C lunar lander.

The objective of the IM-2 mission is to land a drill and mass spectrometer (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1, or PRIME-1) near the South Pole of the Moon in order to demonstrate the feasibility of in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) and measure the volatile content of subsurface samples, according to NASA’s Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. The Lunar Trailblazer mission is scheduled to be a secondary spacecraft on the launch, per NASA.

The IM-2 VR900 engine’s proprietary propulsion system was first validated during the IM-1 mission in February 2024 through the first-ever deep space ignition, followed by multiple restarts and repeatedly successful spacecraft maneuvers, according to Intuitive Machines.

Per Intuitive, the scalable VR900 engine uses an environmentally friendly mix of liquid oxygen and methane (“LOx/LCH4”) in supporting science and discovery payload deliveries to the Moon.

“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 Chief Executive Officer 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.”

In 2020, Intuitive 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), according to the Company.

Intuitive Machines is currently completing a $30 million Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services Feasibility Assessment as a prime contractor, along with Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab; Intuitive’s team has been tasked with creating a a feasibility roadmap to develop, deploy, and operate a Lunar Terrain Vehicle on the Moon using IM’s cargo-class lunar landers. The $1+ billion contract down select is expected in mid-2025, according to Intuitive.