NASA has awarded Intuitive Machines a $116.9 million contract to deliver six payloads to the moon’s south polar region in 2027.

This mission, part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, will use Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander to transport experiments from NASA, the European Space Agency, and the University of Colorado Boulder.

The payloads include studies on biology, planetary science, and a laser retroreflector array.

This award is the first CLPS landing mission since March 2023 and the fourth received by Intuitive Machines, the most of any CLPS contractor, Space News has reported.

NASA plans to maintain a regular cadence of CLPS missions, with upcoming flights including Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 and Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1 later this year.

Written by B.C. Begley