ready for takeoff
Space tech startup opens new $40M HQ at Houston Spaceport
Houston aerospace company Intuitive Machines has moved into its new $40 million headquarters at the Houston Spaceport.
Intuitive Machines’ new home supports NASA’s $93 billion Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the moon by 2024 and eventually send humans to Mars. Eighteen astronauts are assigned to the program. Houston’s Johnson Space Center is playing a key role in Artemis.
The company’s 105,572-square-foot Lunar Production and Operations Center serves as the hub for its lunar program, including the manufacturing of lunar landers and spacecraft. The facility features manufacturing and production spaces, 3D printing areas, machine shops, R&D labs, cleanrooms, and spacecraft assembly areas, along with offices, meeting rooms, and conference rooms.
“Unique to the facility are mission control rooms to track and manage lunar missions, and a propulsion test facility to assess lunar lander engine capabilities,” Intuitive Machines says in a news release.
The propulsion test facility consists of a 3,800-square-foot reinforced concrete chamber surrounded by a 25-foot-high perimeter wall that encloses an additional 6,500-square-foot yard.
Intuitive Machines says its first mission lunar lander, Nova-C, will soon be shipped from its new facility ahead of the lander’s upcoming launch. The mission to deliver NASA and commercial payloads to the moon’s south pole marks the first U.S. attempt of a soft lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The moon “is no longer a distant dream; it’s a destination within our grasp, and this facility is our lunar gateway — a national asset,” says Steve Altemus, co-founder, president, and CEO of Intuitive Machines.
Construction on the site began in June 2021, with the now-completed facility ready to support each of Intuitive Machines’ three NASA-awarded missions.
Intuitive Machines joins Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace as the third anchor tenant at the Houston Spaceport.
“Houston has always been a city that reaches for the stars, and with Intuitive Machines operating at the Houston Spaceport, our city is poised to shine even brighter in the cosmos,” says Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
In August, the publicly traded company announced it received a $20 million equity investment from an unidentified institutional investor.
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