Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander on display at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
NASA
Shares of Intuitive Machines jumped 16% in trading Friday after the corporate’s successful first moon landing.
Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C cargo moon lander referred to as “Odysseus” on Thursday became the primary privately developed spacecraft to land on the lunar surface — in addition to the primary U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on the moon in greater than 50 years.
The corporate, based in Houston, Texas, confirmed that the IM-1 mission lander was standing upright and sending data back to Earth.
“Odysseus has found his latest home,” Tim Crain, Intuitive Machines’ CTO and IM-1 mission director, said Thursday evening from the corporate’s mission control.
Intuitive Machines stock initially ripped 40% higher before paring gains with heavy trading volume to shut at $9.59 a share. The corporate has a market valuation of about $1 billion.
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The corporate’s stock has been rallying over the past month as excitement in-built the lead-up to and progress of the IM-1 mission. Intuitive Machines went public via a SPAC a 12 months ago and shares had steadily slid to all-time lows near $2 in January.
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Intuitive Machines stock over the past 5 days.
Wall Street analysts emphasized to CNBC ahead of the landing that the unprecedented nature of the event may lead to volatile momentum trading.
“We have never witnessed a publicly traded company undergo [a moon landing attempt]. So that is latest, not only for investors, but for us analysts as well,” Cantor Fitzgerald’s Andres Sheppard said before the landing.
In a note to investors after the landing, Cantor Fitzgerald increased its price goal on Intuitive Machines’ stock to $13 a share from $4 a share.
“In our view, this validates the corporate’s technology and adds significant credibility to the business. As such, we consider Intuitive Machines is now thoroughly positioned to proceed to capitalize on the growing business space economy, and on subsequent launches,” Sheppard wrote within the note.
The IM-1 lander “Odysseus” in lunar orbit on Feb. 21, 2024.
Intuitive Machines
Intuitive Machines, in a press release Friday morning, said that “Odysseus is alive and well,” noting that the lander is charging its solar panels.
“Flight controllers are communicating and commanding the vehicle to download science data,” the corporate said.
The corporate and NASA plan to carry a press conference at 5 p.m. ET on Friday.
The Odysseus lander carried 12 government and business payloads — six of that are for NASA under a $118 million contract through the agency’s Business Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative.
Intuitive Machines has already won two more CLPS contracts for future lander missions, with IM-2 expected to launch as early because the second half of this 12 months.
Moreover, the corporate has a part of a five-year $719 million contract to offer engineering services to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Analysts expect the Goddard contract is value about $11 million per 30 days in revenue for Intuitive Machines, with Cantor Fitzgerald estimating the corporate will usher in about $338 million in fiscal 12 months 2024 revenue.