Houston, Texas – Intuitive Machines’ Nova Control will be the command center for the company’s robotic mission to the Moon later this year. The mission, IM-1, will be the first Houston-commanded lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.
“We have staff with decades of experience operating NASA mission control centers before they came to Intuitive Machines, and we brought the best of that into Nova Control,” said Intuitive Machines Vice President of Control Centers, Troy LeBlanc Ph.D. “This nerve center is the foundation of our lunar payload delivery service program and building it in Space City means the world to us.”
Housed inside the Boeing building on Bay Area Boulevard, Nova Control will be continuously staffed by three teams of 12 mission controllers during the Moon lander’s 21-day mission. A complex network of satellite dishes from around the world provides Nova Control near continuous communications with the spacecraft, Nova-C, from launch to surface operations.
“My heart races every time I walk into the room,” LeBlanc said. “For a lot of us, building Nova Control from the ground up was an opportunity to create the perfect system for future lunar operations, and it’s out of this world.”
Intuitive Machines offers Nova Control to other commercial customers seeking a ground control network for cis-lunar and lunar operations.
About Intuitive Machines
Intuitive Machines is a premier provider and supplier of space products and services that enable sustained robotic and human exploration to the Moon, Mars and beyond. We drive markets with competitive world-class offerings synonymous with innovation, high quality, and precision. Whether leveraging state-of-the-art engineering tools and practices or integrating research and advanced technologies, our solutions are insightful and have a positive impact on the world.