Latest news with #CommercialLunarPayloadServices
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intuitive Machines rockets 35% after lunar landmark
Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ:LUNR) surges 35% to a two-month high after reporting $13.3 million in free cash flow and completing the southernmost lunar landing in history. The company posted Q1 revenue of $62.5 million, missing the $66.1 million Wall Street consensus, but gross margin climbed to 11%, marking a third straight quarter of positive margins as Commercial Lunar Payload Services, Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services and Near Space Network Services all saw growth and a shift toward higher-margin service offerings. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with LUNR. CEO Steve Altemus said, We believe Intuitive Machines brings proven performance and speed to market, pointing to successful Jet Propulsion Laboratory rover tests ahead of the IM-3 mission. Intuitive Machines generated $19.4 million in operating cash and milestone payments and ended the quarter with $373.3 million in cash following a warrant redemption. The company reaffirmed its 2025 revenue forecast of $250 million to $300 million and expects to reach positive adjusted EBITDA on a run-rate basis by year-end, setting the stage for full-year profitability in 2026. Compared to many space infrastructure peers still burning cash, Intuitive Machines's clear path to profitability stands out. Management is also diversifying beyond lunar missions into national security and microgravity applications. As the sole contractor on the Air Force Research Laboratory's JETSON nuclear propulsion program and recipient of a $10 million Texas Space Commission grant, the firm is advancing in-space nuclear capabilities and reentry research. Investors should note that strong cash flow, margin expansion and high-profile government contracts could drive sustainable growth despite the top-line miss. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Associated Press
29-04-2025
- Science
- Associated Press
Polkadot Joins BitBasel's 'Art for Impact' Program to Send Artwork to the Moon
Global call for artists: Submit work inspired by the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to be preserved on the lunar surface Miami, FL – April 29, 2025 – Polkadot has joined BitBasel's Art for Impact Space Program, a visionary initiative inviting artists to create work inspired by the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for inclusion in a permanent art archive headed to the surface of the Moon. This one-of-a-kind program is part of the GLPH (Galactic Library Preserve Humanity) archival payload, set to launch on the upcoming Astrobotic Griffin-1 lunar mission under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Using Nanofiche, a space-grade technology designed to endure the extreme conditions of space, selected artworks will be preserved for billions of years on the Moon as a testament to human creativity, purpose, and legacy. Polkadot, one of Web3's most powerful and sustainable blockchain ecosystems, joins BitBasel in rallying creators around the world to contribute visual works that reflect on one or more of the 17 SDGs, including climate action, quality education, gender equality, clean energy, and sustainable innovation. Submissions must be representable as still imagery and may include digital art, photography, illustration, painting, or mixed media. Artists are encouraged to create pieces that not only showcase their talent but also spark global awareness and inspire future generations. A curation committee composed of representatives from BitBasel, Polkadot, GLPH, and the University of Florida Blockchain Lab will evaluate submissions and select the final group of artworks to be included in the Moon-bound archive. Selected artists will be formally recognized as part of this historic cultural and space mission. 'This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for artists to etch their values into history—literally,' said Scott Spiegel, Co-founder & CEO of BitBasel. 'With Polkadot's support, we're expanding the reach of this mission across the Web3 ecosystem and beyond. The Moon is the canvas, and together we're sending a message that art can drive awareness, action, and legacy.' The submission deadline is May 9, 2025, and the selected works will launch aboard a SpaceX rocket later this year. To learn more and submit your artwork, visit For media inquiries, please contact Jonathan Duran at Jonathan(at)Distractive(dot)xyz ### About BitBasel BitBasel is a pioneering platform at the intersection of art, blockchain, and emerging technology. Founded in Miami in 2020, BitBasel empowers artists, collectors, and technologists through immersive experiences, curated exhibitions, and digital marketplaces. With a mission to 'Pioneer the Future of the Arts,' BitBasel has launched historic initiatives—from lunar art missions to global Web3 education programs. About Polkadot Polkadot is the powerful, secure core of Web3, providing a shared foundation that unites some of the world's most transformative apps and blockchains. Polkadot offers advanced modular architecture that allows devs to easily design and build their own specialized blockchain projects, pooled security that ensures the same high standard for secure block production across all connected chains and apps connected to it, and robust governance that ensures a transparent system where everyone has say in shaping the blockchain ecosystem for growth and sustainability. With Polkadot, users are not just participants, they're co-creators with the power to shape its future. About GLPH The Galactic Library Preserve Humanity (GLPH) is a groundbreaking archival initiative using Nanofiche technology to preserve humanity's cultural legacy on the Moon for billions of years. About University of Florida Blockchain Lab The University of Florida Blockchain Lab is an academic research center advancing the development and application of blockchain technology through education, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'We learned so much that we didn't know': Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost moon lander mission was full of surprises
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — Lessons learned and on-the-spot surprises from the first fully successful commercial lunar lander mission bolsters the chances of long-term robotic and human operations on the moon. The Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Mission 1 safely touched down on March 2 within the targeted Mare Crisium landing zone. Plopping down on its four landing legs, the spacecraft delivered ten science instruments and technology demonstration gear through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Blue Ghost completed more than 14 days of surface operations during 346 hours of daylight, stretching its lifetime for a little over 5 hours into the super-chilly lunar night. On moon landing day, "I should have had a heart monitor. My heart was racing. But I had full confidence in the team," recalled Jason Kim, Firefly's Chief Executive Officer during the 40th Space Symposium held here April 7-10 by the Space Foundation at The Broadmoor. The trek to the moon involved seven major engine burns, doing so with the company's in-house engine technology that performed with precision, Kim said. "So we're going to use that engine over and over." A key to Blue Ghost's spot-on landing was plotting out the spacecraft's changing mass properties, to ascertain the craft's constantly changing center of gravity, said Kim. The team was smart enough to design the vehicle with four propellant tanks, side by side. "So having that balanced design really helped land on the moon and stick that landing," Kim told the audience. "It's just what commercial companies do. They come up with creative solutions and innovation to attack the problem." Firefly also conducted robust testing that included 500 hours of rehearsals using multiple simulations to design the system, he said. Another checklist success was the Blue Ghost's autonomous landing. "There were no communication outages that we had to worry about. No latencies we had to worry about or false alarms from human error. It was just doing everything autonomously in the last hour. That's what made it successful … but also that's why it was so challenging," Kim said. As a big believer of autonomy, Kim said the company is doubling-down on that capability. "All of our spacecraft going forward are going to have some level of autonomy," he said as "that's where the future is going." After landing, Blue Ghost immediately got to work. Kim spotlighted two payloads, the LISTER drill to probe the moon's subsurface and the Lunar PlanetVac that successfully collected, transferred, and sorted lunar regolith from the moon using pressurized nitrogen gas. It proved to be a low cost, low mass solution for future robotic sample collection. LISTER was developed jointly by Texas Tech University and Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company that also provided the Lunar PlanetVac. The LISTER drill, plowing down an unprecedented three feet instead of a projected 10 feet, "did hit some really hard rock formations," related Kim, "and that's the whole discovery. We learned so much that we didn't know." A surprising finding from Blue Ghost was the lunar temperature. "Nobody has ever done noon operations on the lunar surface. We found out that it's hotter than expected and modeled." It actually starts sooner and it lasts longer, Kim said, observing that the temperature swings on the moon "were really, really crazy." Read more: Watch sparks fly as Blue Ghost lander drills into the moon (video) Adding to the temperature revelation was another Blue Ghost surprise finding. "We didn't know we were going to land next to a huge crater. The sun does hit us from one side and heats us up. But the sun reflected off one side of that crater and hit us from the back. So we actually got hotter because of that reason," said Kim. "So there's so much new discovery that we found and we can pass that forward to other CLPS missions." All the lunar landing components operated through the thermal swings, Kim said, even though they exceeded their thermal limits. "So in the future, we know we need to model the geographic features of the moon a lot better with higher fidelity," Kim added. Blue Ghost mission controllers came up with a clever "beat the heat" idea during lunar operations. When the lander was going through lunar noon and was over-heating, Earth operators wanted to assure radio operations were maintained. Blue Ghost's rectangular antenna on the lander's top deck was gimbaled in such a way as to shade the area in which the radio was contained. "We're from Texas so we know about shade," Kim said. Indeed, that "made in the shade" approach got the radio back into operational configuration. Blue Ghost's five-hour sojourn into the lunar night also provided some takeaway messages. "NASA wanted us to turn on the payloads, so we did, and we actually got some payload data," Kim said. "The LISTER was the last payload standing. That was pretty spectacular." Information gleaned from the short foray into lunar night, said Kim, shows that there are ways to design lunar lander systems in a modular way to survive and thrive in the night. The Blue Ghost batteries used on the lander exceeded expectations. Taking a modular approach, Kim said more batteries could be added in the future to sustain specific components, enabling them to live on through the cold lunar night. "We could add radiators as well," he said. Looking ahead, Firefly is ramping up for annual missions to the moon. The team has begun qualifying and assembling flight hardware for Blue Ghost Mission-2, which will utilize Firefly's Blue Ghost lander stacked on the group's Elytra Dark orbital vehicle for operations in lunar orbit and on the far side of the moon. Read more: Watch the sun set over the moon in epic video from private Blue Ghost lunar lander RELATED STORIES: — 'We're on the moon!' Private Blue Ghost moon lander aces historic lunar landing for NASA — Watch sparks fly as Blue Ghost lander drills into the moon (video) — Watch the sun set over the moon in epic video from private Blue Ghost lunar lander That far side lander, also designed to operate for 14 days on the moon, is based on a slightly incremental design of the Blue Ghost-1 mission, Kim said. "It will require us to have a tandem orbiter, to provide communications to and from the Earth," he said, "so we're going to be operating two spacecraft simultaneously." That moon orbiter is expected to last quite a few years," Kim noted, "so we're already looking at putting things like high-resolution cameras on it." In appraising the Blue Ghost Mission-1, Kim saluted the company's 750 employees that include the 60-person lander team's commitment and bold approaches taken. "For some of them, this was their first spacecraft … never having built and operated a spacecraft, but they nailed it," said Kim. The $101 million mission called upon the team to do whatever it took to out-think the problems, he said, and keep the program on cost and schedule. "They are unstoppable," he concluded.
The Hill
13-04-2025
- Science
- The Hill
Commercial space companies are ready for the next stage of lunar exploration
Recently, some of the players in the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program met with the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, part of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. The witnesses included representatives from NASA administration, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Astrobotic Technology, Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace. Intuitive Machines made a 'partially successful' lunar landing in March after a similar attempt in February 2024. Firefly Aerospace conducted an entirely successful lunar landing also in March 2025. Astrobotic failed its first lunar landing attempt in January 2024. The hearing covered two main topics. The first was what to do with the NASA VIPER lunar rover. The second was a discussion of the possibility of a Commercial Lunar Payload Services 2.0. VIPER, or Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, was planned by NASA to be delivered by an Astrobotic Griffin lander to the moon's south pole. It would trundle across the lunar surface with a drill and a suite of instruments, searching for ice. NASA abruptly canceled the rover in July 2024, citing cost overruns. The VIPER is essentially finished and needs only some more testing before it is sent to the moon. The decision elicited cries of outrage from both the scientific and commercial space communities. Some demanded that the project be revived through a commercial partnership. Intuitive Machines developed a plan to do just that, using one of its planned landers. NASA finally put out some requests for proposals for plans to deliver the VIPER to the moon with a commercial partnership. The space agency stated that it will respond sometime in the summer of 2025. Members of the subcommittee expressed exasperation with NASA's decision to cancel VIPER, according to Space News. Nicola Fox, the associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, defended the decision, stating that moving forward with the lunar rover would have adversely affected the funding of several future Commercial Lunar Payload Services missions. Brett W. Denevi, the principal staff scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, expressed skepticism about the commercial partnership approach. 'We should not expect VIPER science to happen by hoping that someone will offer to fly and operate it on their own dime,' he said. He stated that Congress must come up with the extra money lest China become the first country to prospect for water ice on the moon. On the subject of Commercial Lunar Payload Services and its future, the three representatives of the commercial lunar lander companies were filled with praise for the program and would like more of the same. The current program lasts through 2028. A Commercial Lunar Payload Services 2.0 would continue and expand the program that has NASA helping to finance commercial moon landings. Steve Altemus, president and CEO of Intuitive Machines, suggested that Commercial Lunar Payload Services 2.0. would start delivering 'infrastructure' to the lunar surface. Infrastructure means habitats, rovers, power sources and everything else that would support the long-term exploration and development of the moon. By 2028, if NASA's plans hold up, the Artemis III mission should have already taken place. A Human Landing System derived from the SpaceX Starship will have delivered two astronauts and their equipment to the lunar surface. With the Starship human landing systems' ability to carry 100 to 150 metric tons to the moon, the first two moonwalkers since 1972 will have a lot of stuff coming with them. The advent of the Starship human landing system could provide a lot of opportunities for commercial companies. It could be that Artemis III will leave behind robots provided by commercial companies to continue the work of the next moonwalkers when they leave the lunar surface. The opportunity presented by the Starship human landing system depends on NASA following through with the Artemis return to the moon program and not pursuing the pivot to Mars that Elon Musk advocates. The moon is an opportunity for science, economic development and political soft power (i.e., beating China.) Fortunately, Jared Isaacman, the billionaire entrepreneur who Trump nominated to be NASA administrator, has expressed his full support for a return to the moon before the end of the current presidential term. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that oversees NASA, agreed on X, stating, 'The moon mission MUST happen in President Trump's term or else China will beat us there and build the first moonbase.' Isaacman also noted during testimony at his confirmation hearings that while Mars is a priority, 'Along the way, we will inevitably have the capabilities to return to the Moon and determine the scientific, economic, and national security benefits of maintaining a presence on the lunar surface.' Commercial Lunar Payload Services companies can play a continuing role in the opening of the lunar frontier. Mark R. Whittington, who writes frequently about space policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled ' Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? ' as well as ' The Moon, Mars and Beyond,' and, most recently, ' Why is America Going Back to the Moon? ' He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Should You Buy Intuitive Machines Stock While It's Trading Below $8?
It's been just over a year since Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR) made history as the first private company to achieve a successful lunar landing. The mission marked a milestone in commercial space exploration, but more importantly, it solidified the company's position as a leader in the burgeoning industry with proven technical capabilities. Despite a strong growth outlook fueled by several high-profile contracts, shares of Intuitive Machines have cratered at the start of 2025, trading down 60% year to date at the time of this writing amid the broader stock market sell-off. With the stock now trading below $8, is it a buy? Here's what you need to know. Intuitive Machines does not launch rockets itself but instead designs, builds, and operates spacecraft, such as its lunar landers. For its groundbreaking February 2024 IM-1 mission, the company's Odysseus Nova-C lander rode a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket -- an approach that allows it to concentrate on its core strengths in payload delivery, lunar surface infrastructure, mobility and robotics, satellite operations, and data communications services. The company aims to advance its technology steadily, eyeing a space infrastructure market opportunity that experts project will grow to $1.8 trillion by 2035. The early financial results have been impressive. In 2024 (covering the full year ended Dec. 31) Intuitive Machines' total revenue reached $228 million, nearly triple the 2023 result amid multiple contract awards and a close partnership with NASA, ending the year with a $328 million backlog. Projects fueling Intuitive Machines' growth include the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which builds on IM-1's success with IM-2's South Pole landing earlier this year to prospect for water. Two more lunar missions are slated through 2027. There is also the ongoing Omnibus Multidiscipline Engineering Services contract that further supports NASA with broad operational expertise. For 2025, the company projects revenue of $250 million to $300 million, a solid 20% annual increase. While Intuitive Machines is not yet profitable, management's guidance suggests a positive adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) run rate by the end of the year, and for 2026, an encouraging sign of more sustainable fundamentals. This is backed by a robust balance sheet, with $385 million in cash and zero debt as of March 13, ensuring ample liquidity to drive its ambitions. One of the attractions of Intuitive Machines as an investment is that, despite uncertainties over the U.S. economy's strength and the looming impact of Trump administration trade tariffs, its business profile and operating tailwinds remain largely insulated from these dynamics. Its multiyear NASA contracts, funded at the federal level, ensure project continuity regardless of how consumer spending or GDP evolves, providing valuable stability in the early stages of a fast-evolving space exploration industry. While a severe economic downturn could pressure NASA to reassess future projects or limit private sector opportunities, it's business as usual for now. Looking ahead, key catalysts could reignite investor enthusiasm and boost Intuitive Machines' battered stock price. The IM-3 mission, set for early 2026, will launch the first of five data relay satellites under the NASA Near Space Network contract, marking its entry into lucrative high-bandwidth transmission solutions as part of its space infrastructure-as-a-service offerings. Later in 2025, NASA's decision on the $4.6 billion Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services contract, spanning 15 years through 2040, could be a game-changer for Intuitive Machines, one of three finalists. Additional private sector engagements and deployment announcements would likely further bolster its growth trajectory to lift investor sentiment. I'm bullish on Intuitive Machines and see the recent stock price weakness as a chance for investors to buy the dip before a potential rebound. With the stock trading approximately 5 times its estimated 2025 revenue, the forward price-to-sales (P/S) ratio highlights compelling value for an industry pioneer with substantial long-term potential. The rally from here may not shoot straight into orbit, but the company has the pieces in place to reward shareholders over the long run. A small position in the stock, built through dollar-cost averaging to manage near-term volatility, could work well within a diversified portfolio. Before you buy stock in Intuitive Machines, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Intuitive Machines wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $461,558!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $578,035!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 730% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 147% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of April 5, 2025 Dan Victor has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Should You Buy Intuitive Machines Stock While It's Trading Below $8? was originally published by The Motley Fool
