New Lunar Rideshare Services Agreement Announced
New Lunar Rideshare Services Agreement Announced
Intuitive Machines and SEOPS Enter Launch Services Agreement
A launch services agreement has been signed between SEPOPS and Intuitive Machines. Under the agreement, Intuitive Machines will provide rideshare delivery services to SEOPS as it expands its offering beyond LEO to now include multiple destinations, from geostationary transfer orbit to the Moon’s surface and various Lagrange points between the Earth and Moon starting after 2025.
"It makes financial sense to take advantage of the excess capacity on Intuitive Machines’ lunar missions, while also supporting our customers' goals for lunar exploration."
Chad Brinkley, SEOPS
Intuitive Machines’ cadence of pioneering lunar exploration and scientific discovery missions, including its upcoming IM-2 and IM-3 missions, along with its capability to deliver commercial assets to orbit, enables commercial companies like SEOPS to provide deployment services. This establishes a new industry offering and expands SEOPS’ ability to provide integration, and deployment services to a wide range of orbital destinations.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in interest from both our government and commercial customers in lunar missions,” said Chad Brinkley, CEO of SEOPS. “Intuitive Machines’ rideshare capacity not only satisfies a growing market need, but it’s completely in our wheelhouse – leveraging our expertise in solving complex launch challenges for our customers. It makes financial sense to take advantage of the excess capacity on Intuitive Machines’ lunar missions, while also supporting our customers' goals for lunar exploration. We couldn’t be more excited to work with Intuitive Machines to extend our rideshare services to cislunar destinations and beyond.”
“The visions and missions of the space industry are more ambitious than ever,” said Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus. “SEOPS entrusting us with the delivery of its customers’ payloads to space highlights our capabilities to provide the essential infrastructure and services that support all groundbreaking commercial ambitions in space.”
With extensive experience in payload integration, mission management, and deployment solutions, including in-house designed and engineered flight hardware and an orbital transfer vehicle, the SEOPS team collectively brings expertise from more than 400 satellite deployments, including for the U.S. Space Force, NRO, and NASA. Additionally, the company has managed 16 rideshare launches, including SpaceX Transporter and International Space Station cargo rendezvous missions.