Johns Hopkins APL Teams with Intuitive Machines to Advance Cislunar Communications and Navigation

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and Intuitive Machines Inc., of Houston, have signed a cooperation agreement to partner on providing safe, secure and reliable communications and navigation infrastructure in cislunar space.

Cislunar space comprises the region between Earth’s geosynchronous orbit — approximately 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers) from Earth’s surface — and the Moon, as well as the Earth-Moon Lagrange points. The region has attracted interest from military, civil space and industry organizations that see it as a key location for national security, scientific exploration, resource mining and manufacturing.

“Cislunar space is of critical importance to our nation,” said Bobby Braun, head of APL’s Space Exploration Sector. “The combined technical strength of Johns Hopkins APL and Intuitive Machines holds the promise to dramatically accelerate the achievement of America’s scientific, exploration and security objectives in cislunar space.”

Under the agreement, APL and Intuitive Machines will collaborate on exploring potential capabilities in communications; positioning, navigation and tracking; and networking that could benefit the nation. Intuitive Machines, a diversified space exploration, infrastructure and services company, may also adapt these advancements for commercial use.

“This partnership is the leap toward establishing safe, secure and reliable communications and navigation around the Moon, an area where we believe technology advancement is needed,” said Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus. “APL has a strong history of advancing solutions to critical challenges in defense, national security and space exploration. We’re excited to combine APL’s innovation with Intuitive Machines’ proven cislunar expertise.”

With a demonstrated ability to work across civil and national security space domains and a broad and distinguished base of cislunar experts — including the largest team of lunar scientists in any single organization — APL is uniquely positioned to implement and integrate critical elements of the nation’s lunar strategy. Through partnerships with NASA and other government agencies, academia and industry, APL is making critical contributions to the development of cislunar infrastructure to protect the nation’s security interests, support development of a sustainable cislunar presence and advance pioneering science.

“Now is the time for the United States to develop and test the technologies critical to establishing a sustained human presence on the Moon,” said Jason Kalirai, APL’s mission area executive for Space Formulation. “With this partnership, we take a step toward a lunar demonstration of APL’s unique expertise in communications and navigation, while continuing to establish standards and develop foundational capabilities for the benefit of our nation’s space program.”