Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander is on display at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
NASA
Shares of Intuitive Machines jumped 20% in Friday trading after the company’s first successful moon landing.
Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar rover, known as “Ulysses,” on Thursday became the first privately developed spacecraft to land on the lunar surface — as well as the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on the moon in more than 50 years.
The company, based in Houston, Texas, confirmed that the IM-1 mission aircraft was standing upright and sending data back to Earth.
“Ulysses has found its new home,” said Tim Crane, CTO and director of the IM-1 mission at Intuitive Machines, from the company’s mission control.
Intuitive Machines stock initially jumped 40% from its previous close of $8.28 a share before paring gains on heavy trading volume. The company is valued at around $1 billion.
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The company’s stock has rallied over the past month as excitement builds on the lead-up to the mission and the progress of the IM-1 mission. Intuitive Machines went public through a SPAC a year ago, and shares had steadily fallen to all-time lows near $2 in January.
Intuitive Machines inventory in the last 5 days.
Wall Street analysts stressed to CNBC before the landing that the unprecedented nature of the event could lead to volatile trading.
“We have never seen a listed company go through [a moon landing attempt]. So this is new, not only for investors, but also for us analysts,” Andres Sheppard of Cantor Fitzgerald said before the landing.
In a note to investors after the landing, Cantor Fitzgerald raised its price target on Intuitive Machines stock to $13 a share from $4 a share.
“In our view, this validates the company’s technology and adds significant credibility to the business. As such, we believe Intuitive Machines is now very well positioned to continue capitalizing on the growing commercial space economy and subsequent launches,” Sheppard wrote in the note.
The IM-1 “Odysseus” lander in lunar orbit on February 21, 2024.
Intuitive Machines
Intuitive Machines, in a statement Friday morning, said that “Ulysses is alive and well,” noting that the aircraft is charging its solar panels.
“The flight controllers communicate and command the vehicle to download science data,” the company said.
The company and NASA plan to hold a press conference at 5 p.m. ET on Friday.
The Odysseus spacecraft carried 12 government and commercial payloads — six of which are for NASA under a $118 million contract through the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative.
Intuitive Machines has already won two more CLPS contracts for future landing missions, with IM-2 expected to launch as early as the second half of this year.
In addition, the company is part of a five-year, $719 million contract to provide engineering services at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Analysts expect the Goddard contract to be worth about $11 million a month in revenue for Intuitive Machines, with Cantor Fitzgerald estimating the company will bring in about $338 million in revenue for fiscal 2024.