It was founded in 2013 by Stephen Altemus, Kam Ghaffarian, and Tim Crain, to provide commercial and government exploration of the Moon.

Today the Company offers lunar surface access for transportation and payload delivery, data transmission services, and infrastructure-as-a-service.

Intuitive Machines’ Lunar Payload Delivery Services (LPDS) program opens access to the Moon for the progress of humanity.

[3][4][5] On 13 April 2020, IM, under contract to carry NASA science instruments to the Moon on a robotic spacecraft, said that its first lunar mission would target a deep, narrow valley named Vallis Schröteri.

The Odysseus lander fell on its side when landing, but its instruments remained partially functional (albeit with a reduced downlink capacity), so the mission was judged successful.

This south pole mission includes six NASA payloads in addition to a European Space Agency led drill suite to search for water ice.

Intuitive Machines became the sole awardee for the Near Space Network Services contract in September 2024, which marked a transformative step in data transmission for in-space communications and navigation.

Intuitive Machines intends to leverage its already contracted surface delivery missions to deploy a constellation of lunar data relay satellites around the Moon.