Aerospace
Intuitive Machines Wins NASA JPL Platform Work for FALCON-RADAR
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Intuitive Machines announced (LUNR ) on November 3, 2026, that NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) had selected it to provide the IM 300 spacecraft platform and system-level integration for FALCON-RADAR, an Earth observation mission that will study clouds and convection from space. No award value or expected revenue was disclosed, so the selection establishes a new work scope but not its financial contribution.
FALCON-RADAR is targeted for launch no earlier than 2029. The spacecraft is being developed in collaboration with EAGLE-VSWIR, another NASA mission awarded to Intuitive Machines, with the two missions intended to provide complementary science data.
Radar Mission Targets Cloud and Precipitation Processes
FALCON-RADAR belongs to the Fleet for the Atmospheric Linking Commercial Observations with NASA. Its single polar-orbiting, sun-synchronous satellite will carry a W-Band Cloud Profiling Doppler Radar instrument designed to observe shallow light precipitation and small-scale cloud dynamics.
Within the FALCON fleet, the mission will supply two-dimensional cloud context and detect convection. Combined with water-vapor and aerosol measurements from other missions, its data are intended to enable deeper atmospheric analysis and help profile the processes responsible for rain and snow near Earth’s surface. Intuitive Machines also said the mission’s millimeter-wavelength radar technology may support advances toward Moon and Mars applications.
Shared Platforms and Different Mission Scopes
The EAGLE-VSWIR award announced on August 18, 2026, also uses the IM 300 but targets an earlier launch in 2028. Its payload is a hyperspectral visible-to-shortwave-infrared instrument developed at JPL for surface biology and geology observations from Earth orbit.
Intuitive Machines’ agreement for EAGLE-VSWIR covers platform delivery, instrument integration, mission operations and the ground segment. The FALCON-RADAR announcement specifies platform and system-level integration without listing the same additional operations and ground-segment responsibilities, making the announced work packages different despite their shared spacecraft architecture.
The IM 300’s modular core bus is designed to accommodate substantially different payloads and mission profiles, with production at a Palo Alto, California facility built for serial spacecraft manufacturing rather than one-off builds. Intuitive Machines described that architecture when it announced a separate September 1, 2026 order for two IM 300 platforms from an undisclosed customer.
Intuitive Machines describes FALCON-RADAR as its third mission supporting NASA Earth science objectives in the last six months. Alongside FALCON-RADAR and EAGLE-VSWIR, it is providing an IM 500 spacecraft bus, system-level integration and mission solutions for NASA’s EDGE (Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer) mission, managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Altemus attributed the awards to the company’s platform and production approach. “Our reliable and modular platforms align with NASA’s goal of delivering more science on faster timelines,” he said. “We combine spacecraft manufacturing at scale with deep mission systems and integration expertise, and Earth science is a natural fit.”
For Intuitive Machines, the awards show platform reuse and integration services being applied across a widening NASA science portfolio spanning the IM 300 and IM 500 families. FALCON-RADAR adds another defined mission to that portfolio, but without a disclosed value it expands the company’s announced work without establishing its financial scale.
