Update: Intuitive Machines completed its moon landing after 5 p.m. Central Time on Feb. 22, a week after the launch of its IM-1 mission. The company's Nova-C lander, known as Odysseus, is the first U.S. vehicle to land on the moon’s surface since Apollo 17 in 1972. This also is the first successful moon landing carried out by a private company rather than a government agency.
The successful landing sent Intuitive Machines' stock soaring more than 40% in after-hours trading. Shortly before markets opened on Feb. 23, the stock was still up about 33%, trading around $11 per share. A couple hours before the successful moon landing on Feb. 22, Intuitive Machines' stock closed at $8.28 per share, down about 11% for the day.
Update: The IM-1 mission blasted off just after midnight on Feb. 15, SpaceX confirmed in a post on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
Deployment of Houston-based Intuitive Machines' lunar lander was confirmed less than a hour later. The lander will now make its way to the moon's south pole, per SpaceX, which will take multiple days.
If all goes well, the Nova-C lander known as Odysseus could be the first U.S. vehicle to land on the moon’s surface since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Update: Around 10:30 p.m. Feb. 13, SpaceX announced that the mission to send Houston-based Intuitive Machines' lunar lander to the moon has been delayed. The company is now targeting a launch window at 12:05 a.m. Central time Feb. 15.
"Standing down from tonight’s attempt due to off-nominal methane temperatures prior to stepping into methane load. Now targeting Thursday, February 15 at 1:05 a.m. ET for Falcon 9's launch of the @Int_Machines IM-1 mission from Florida," SpaceX said in a post on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
SpaceX's live webcast of the mission will begin around 11:20 p.m. CT Feb. 14 on the company's X account.
The original story from earlier on Feb. 13 appears below.
Only a year after going public, Houston-based Intuitive Machines Inc. (Nasdaq: LNR) will try to make history.
Intuitive Machines is set to launch its IM-1 lunar lander mission at 11:57 p.m. Central time Feb. 13 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 craft from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. If all goes well, the Nova-C lander known as Odysseus could be the first U.S. vehicle to land on the moon’s surface since Apollo 17 in 1972. Intuitive Machines officials said the lander is expected to touch down on Feb. 22.
The company expects the market for lunar landings to expand to include commercial customers beyond NASA, Trent Martin, vice president of space systems at Intuitive Machines, said during a Feb. 13 press conference.
“Creating an entire lunar program for a fixed price in the time it takes to get an undergraduate degree is a pressure cooker for innovation,” Martin said. “We are seeing the market grow and expand, and we expect that at some point in the future NASA will not be the lion’s share of the overall price of a mission. It will be a good mixture of commercial and NASA.”
A successful commercial launch would not only prepare NASA for its eventual manned mission Artemis III — which Intuitive Machines landed a contract for last year — but it would also be a testament to Houston’s growing commercial space economy. Companies such as Axiom Space, which is co-founded by Intuitive Machines co-founder Kam Ghaffarian, have selected Houston as their manufacturing hubs for their own space infrastructure projects.
NASA is paying Intuitive Machines just under $118 million through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, Joel Kearns, the deputy associate administrator for exploration at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, confirmed at the press conference. The agency also spent just under $11 million on scientific instruments that will be flying on board Odysseus.
As of the end of 2022, over 80% of Intuitive Machines' revenue came from a small group of customers, the company said in a Feb. 6 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company's long-term goals include establishing a permanent presence on the moon, where it can transmit data for potential customers.
IM-1 has managed to secure other commercial partners besides the space agency. In filings, Intuitive Machines listed Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), Columbia Sportswear Co. (Nasdaq: COLM), and Houston-based Aegis Aerospace as commercial partners. Columbia is testing a thermal reflective material that is used to shield the lunar lander from the extreme temperatures of space.
The Odysseus lander was manufactured at Intuitive Machines’ $40 million production center, which opened in the Houston Spaceport in September of last year.
Intuitive Machines is one of the Houston Spaceport’s three anchor tenants, and all three have either completed or are developing infrastructure at the Ellington Airport site. North Carolina-based Collins Aerospace, a division of RTX Corp. (NYSE: RTX), opened a 120,000-square-foot facility in September 2022. Meanwhile, Axiom Space completed the first phase of its headquarters in December.
The IM-1 launch will take place exactly one year after Intuitive Machines completed its merger with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company. During its time trading on Nasdaq, Intuitive Machines’ stock recorded its highest price of $81.99 per share on Feb. 21 of last year, but the stock dropped below the $5 mark in the second half of 2023.
With the IM-1 launch, Intuitive Machines will hope to avoid the initial fate of Pittsburgh-based Astrobotics, which launched its own lunar lander project last month and could have become the first American vehicle on the moon as another recipient of a CLPS grant. However, hours after its January takeoff, Astrobotics found a failure with its lander’s propulsion system and said its mission could not be completed.
Live coverage of the IM-1 launch can be found here.
