Intuitive Machines

Recognized under Tier 1 — Interplanetary Logistics, Intuitive Machines built and operated Nova-C, the lander that achieved the first soft landing on the Moon by a commercial spacecraft and the first American lunar landing since 1972, when Odysseus touched down near the lunar south pole on February 22, 2024, under NASA's CLPS program. A second Nova-C mission, IM-2, followed in 2025 but also ended early after a landing anomaly. The company's IM-3 mission, targeted for the second half of 2026, will deliver NASA science payloads to the Reiner Gamma region and carry Khon-1, the first satellite in Intuitive Machines' planned Lunar Data Network relay constellation, following a $180.4 million NASA CLPS award to expand its lunar surface operations. As one of the only companies to have landed hardware on the Moon, Intuitive Machines is building both the delivery vehicles and the communications relay infrastructure that recurring lunar — and eventually Mars — surface logistics will require.