The top-heavy design didn't help things either. I'll be shocked if they don't go three-for-three on landing sideways given IM3 has the same tall design.
> At his press conference earlier today, Altemus defended the design, saying the spacecraft doesn’t have a high center of gravity because most of its cargo attaches to the base of the vehicle. He said there were no plans for a radical rethink of his company's design.
(We see this in returning F9 first stages, as well.)
Just wait for SpaceX to start trying to land starships on the moon. Also vertically. Also doomed to tip over whenever the surface is slightly out of spec.
We can send small probes to image the moon in incredibly high resolution. It's a big place I'm sure there is a perfectly flat rock somewhere they can use.
i think this becomes somewhat less of an issue once SpaceX gets Starship fulfilling contracts at scale. they're limited in width by the max payload faring width for Falcon 9, which is like half that of starship. add to that an exec claimed it's tall but not necessarily top-heavy as mass isn't evenly distributed throughout.
ceejayoz|11 months ago
https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/07/intuitive_machines_la...
> At his press conference earlier today, Altemus defended the design, saying the spacecraft doesn’t have a high center of gravity because most of its cargo attaches to the base of the vehicle. He said there were no plans for a radical rethink of his company's design.
(We see this in returning F9 first stages, as well.)
sandworm101|11 months ago
Just wait for SpaceX to start trying to land starships on the moon. Also vertically. Also doomed to tip over whenever the surface is slightly out of spec.
https://www.spacex.com/humanspaceflight/moon/
oceanplexian|11 months ago
We can send small probes to image the moon in incredibly high resolution. It's a big place I'm sure there is a perfectly flat rock somewhere they can use.
JumpCrisscross|11 months ago
SpaceX has done it. To date, other nation-states have tried and failed to replicate their achievements in this domain.
IM’s design is wrongly optimised and probably requires a rethink. That the CEO won’t contemplate this isn’t a great sign for the company.
tekla|11 months ago
The heavy bits are at the bottom.
timmg|11 months ago
Because it keeps falling over?
_bin_|11 months ago
strangattractor|11 months ago