Latest news with #IM-2
UPI
6 days ago
- Science
- UPI
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission ends without mapping moon
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer sits in a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space in Colorado during testing in August 2024. The mission was to investigate the nature of the Moon's water, but controllers lost contact with the spacecraft a day after launch in February. Lockheed Martin photo via NASA Aug. 4 (UPI) -- NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission to the moon ended in failure after the government agency lost contact with the spacecraft one day after the launch in February and never regained communication despite extensive efforts. The mission ended Friday, NASA said Monday in a news release. On Feb. 26, the satellite was part of the IM-2 mission by Intuitive Machines aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin Space, successfully separated from the rocket 38 minutes after launch. Another spacecraft, the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment, touched down on the lunar surface on March 6 near the moon's south pole. But because the Athena lander was resting in its side inside a crater, the mission lasted only 10 hours instead of 10 days because it couldn't recharge its solar cells. The Lunard Trailblazer didn't make the 238,000-mile journey from Earth to the moon's surface. "At NASA, we undertake high-risk, high-reward missions like Lunar Trailblazer to find revolutionary ways of doing new science," Nicky Fox, associate administrator at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said. "While it was not the outcome we had hoped for, mission experiences like Lunar Trailblazer help us to learn and reduce the risk for future, low-cost small satellites to do innovative science as we prepare for a sustained human presence on the moon. Thank you to the Lunar Trailblazer team for their dedication in working on and learning from this mission through to the end." Limited data after the launch determined Lunar Trailblazer's solar arrays were not properly oriented toward the sun. The batteries then were depleted. NASA said several collaborating organizations worldwide listened for the spacecraft's radio signal and tracked its position. "As Lunar Trailblazer drifted far beyond the Moon, our models showed that the solar panels might receive more sunlight, perhaps charging the spacecraft's batteries to a point it could turn on its radio," Andrew Klesh, Lunar Trailblazer's project systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said. "The global community's support helped us better understand the spacecraft's spin, pointing, and trajectory. In space exploration, collaboration is critical -- this gave us the best chance to try to regain contact." Based on ground radar and optical observations, the Lunar Trailblazer was in a slow spin going into deep space. The spacecraft became too distant and its signal would have been too weak even if it got energy. JPL built the satellites' high-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper imaging spectrometer to detect and map water and minerals. The Spectrometer has been approved for a future orbital flight. The Union of Oxford, with funding by the British Space Agency, built the Lunar Thermal Mapper instrument to gather temperature data and determine the composition of silicate rocks and soils to improve understanding why water content varies over time. "We're immensely disappointed that our spacecraft didn't get to the Moon, but the two science instruments we developed, like the teams we brought together, are world-class," said Bethany Ehlmann, the mission's principal investigator at Caltech. "This collective knowledge and the technology developed will cross-pollinate to other projects as the planetary science community continues work to better understand the Moon's water." In the 1990s, NASA's Clementine mission detected water on the moon -- the first spacecraft to completely map the lunar surface. The lunar-mapping missions are intended to further scout surfaces for water that could sustain humans. The Artemis II is scheduled to reach the moon no earlier than April 26, and a crewed Artemis III is planned for mid-2027 aboard the Orion spacecraft. Humans have not been on the moon since 1972.
Engadget
7 days ago
- Science
- Engadget
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission ends in disappointment
The Lunar Trailblazer mission to the moon officially ended on July 31, but it wasn't a complete journey. NASA said today that its teams lost contact with the satellite shortly after its launch several months prior. The NASA satellite was part of the IM-2 mission by Intuitive Machines, which took off from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center on February 26 at 7:16PM ET. The Lunar Trailblazer successfully separated from the rocket as planned about 48 minutes after launch. Operators in Pasadena, CA established communication with the satellite at 8:13PM ET, but two-way communication was lost the next day and the team was unable to recover the connection. From the limited data ground teams received before the satellite went dark, the craft's solar arrays were not correctly positioned toward the sun, which caused its batteries to drain. "While it was not the outcome we had hoped for, mission experiences like Lunar Trailblazer help us to learn and reduce the risk for future, low-cost small satellites to do innovative science as we prepare for a sustained human presence on the Moon," said Nicky Fox, associate administrator at NASA Headquarters' Science Mission Directorate. "Thank you to the Lunar Trailblazer team for their dedication in working on and learning from this mission through to the end." The Lunar Trailblazer mission was one of several commercial spaceflights planned for travel to the moon during 2025. Its goal was to create high-resolution maps of any water on the moon's surface, as well as assessing how much water was present, in what forms and how it may have changed over time. Fingers crossed the remaining missions have better success.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intuitive Machines, Inc. (LUNR): A Bull Case Theory
We came across a bullish thesis on Intuitive Machines, Inc. (LUNR) on Deep Value Return's Substack. In this article, we will summarize the bulls' thesis on LUNR. Intuitive Machines, Inc. (LUNR)'s share was trading at $10.89 as of 12th June. LUNR's trailing P/E was 9.2 according to Yahoo Finance. A satellite in the night sky, glimmering with the promise of aerospace exploration. Intuitive Machines (LUNR) represents a timely deep value opportunity for investors willing to look past short-term setbacks and focus on long-term inflection points. The company's recent 70% stock decline following the IM-2 mission failure has reset expectations, but this disappointment is now fully priced in. What remains is a rapidly growing business, gradually progressing toward positive free cash flow, and offering an attractive entry point. With a forward-looking view, LUNR is poised to grow revenues by 30% annually into 2026 and currently trades at just 5x forward sales—a compelling valuation for a space technology company navigating early execution challenges. The author sees this as an ideal inflection investment: not an immediate turnaround story, but one with visible acceleration ahead and the potential for meaningful upside as the market re-rates the stock. The author has set a price target of $17 by late 2026, implying significant appreciation from current levels. Their investment strategy calls for a staggered position—2.5% of capital now and another 2.5% in 4 to 6 weeks—anticipating short-term volatility as an opportunity to average down. This approach reflects a broader portfolio philosophy of capturing multiple small wins rather than swinging for singular moonshots, with rapid capital rotation to deliver outperformance in 2025. Potential upcoming exits from positions in Nebius or Snowflake could free up further capital to redeploy into such setups. For now, LUNR offers the right combination of post-disappointment resilience, strong forward growth, and deep value metrics to justify a calculated, conviction-driven entry. Previously, we highlighted a standout on Rubrik (RBRK) by the same author, which focused on its differentiated cyber resilience platform, early achievement of price targets, and strong FCF margins despite a premium valuation. Deep Value Returns also pitched Intuitive Machines (LUNR), framing it as a deep value play with 30% forward growth, a favorable risk-reward setup post-IM-2 disappointment, and a staggered entry strategy. Intuitive Machines, Inc. (LUNR) is not on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 21 hedge fund portfolios held LUNR at the end of the first quarter which was 26 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of LUNR as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock. Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
One of the Best Space Stocks Just Reported a Big Change, and Its Stock Popped 35% in 1 Day
Investors flocked to Intuitive Machines after the company reported a loss and a revenue decline for Q1. Management reassured investors it is on track to hit its revenue target for the year. Intuitive Machines also promised to "incorporate IM-2 lessons learned" and hopefully land its next lunar lander right side up. 10 stocks we like better than Intuitive Machines › Every so often, you're right about a stock, and it makes you nervous about how long you can keep on being right. That's kind of how I feel looking at Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR) stock right now. Back at the start of the month, if you recall, I said Intuitive Machines stock was a buy and could pop after earnings. And after Intuitive reported earnings this week, the stock did indeed go up. In fact, it went up a lot, surging nearly 35% at one point on the day after earnings, and still up nearly 28% as I type these words. And now I'm honestly not sure this stock is still a buy. Intuitive Machines' Q1 earnings report didn't feature a lot in the way of "earnings," necessarily, and it only reported $62.5 million in revenue. According to the good folks at The Fly, however, that was less than the $66.1 million in revenue that Wall Street analysts were predicting. It was also a 15% decline from the company's $73.2 million in Q1 2024 revenue. Operating costs of $72.6 million ate up all the company's revenue and left Intuitive with a $10.1 million operating loss for Q1. On the bottom line, losses were $11.4 million, or $0.11 per share, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. That's the bad news. Now, here's the good: Intuitive Machines just announced a big change in its cash situation. Intuitive Machines generated positive operating cash flow for the first time in nearly two years in Q1 -- $19.4 million, and reported quarterly positive free cash flow of $13.3 million. The company is still FCF-negative for the past 12 months, and most analysts don't expect to see the company generating FCF consistently for another few years -- but Q1 improved its TTM performance considerably, and Intuitive now has at least a chance of reporting its first full year of positive FCF in 2025. Yes, a small chance. Most analysts still see Intuitive burning cash this year, but less than $2 million. But Intuitive is due to receive "IM-2 success payments" in Q2, which could potentially push the company over the finish line. Management is forecasting between $250 million and $300 million in total revenue this year, right in line with analyst forecasts. In other "IM-" news, the company confirmed that its next moon landing, IM-3, is on track to take place in the first half of next year, "and will incorporate IM-2 lessons learned" -- which hopefully means Intuitive has figured out how to keep its landers from toppling over after landing on the moon. Intuitive is also making progress on its much bigger, much more valuable, $4.8 billion contract to build a Near Space Network for satellite communication between the Earth and moon, completing two "milestones" and receiving funding for two more. With Intuitive Machines stock up so much (again, about 28% over just the past few days), and up so quickly after earnings, I'm a bit less enthusiastic about buying more shares (I already own a few) now that the good news is out. True, the chance that Intuitive might report positive full-year free cash flow in 2025 -- a full three years earlier than Wall Street was expecting -- could be another great catalyst to lift the stock. That said, the main project I'm counting on to drive the company's success is the $4.8 billion NSN NASA contract. That one stretches over 10 years, and appears to be rolling out only slowly, with only $9 million in revenue booked in Q1, and only $18 million more coming in Q2. It's a big-dollar contract, with a long timeline. These two factors combined create a risk that a budget-constrained NASA might be forced to cancel the contract at some point in the future, dramatically limiting growth prospects for Intuitive Machines -- and potentially crashing the stock as well. While I don't think that will happen, it's a risk, and it's one investors in Intuitive Machines stock should keep in mind. The best way to limit that risk is to buy Intuitive Machines stock on a pullback, when it looks cheap again. 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 $642,582!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $829,879!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 975% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% 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 May 12, 2025 Rich Smith has positions in Intuitive Machines. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. One of the Best Space Stocks Just Reported a Big Change, and Its Stock Popped 35% in 1 Day was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SpaceX to launch new Intuitive Machines moon lander, lunar satellites in 2027
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Intuitive Machines may have crashed its latest moon lander on the lunar surface, but that's not keeping the company down for long. The Houston-based company has picked SpaceX to launch IM-4, its fourth moon lander, on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2027 alongside two relay satellites for a NASA lunar communications network. The news comes just weeks after the company's IM-2 moon lander crashed near the moon's south pole, and as the firm continues work on its third moon lander (yes, it's called IM-3), which is expected to launch in 2026. 'Lunar surface delivery and data relay satellites are central to our strategy to commercialize the Moon," Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said in a statement Tuesday (April 8). "We plan to deploy the first of five lunar data relay satellites on our third mission, which will introduce our pay-by-the-minute service. The two additional satellites on our fourth mission are intended to scale that service, followed by two additional deployments to complete the constellation and fully support NASA and commercial lunar operations." The relay satellites will support NASA's Near Space Network Services contract, Intuitive Machines wrote. Intuitive Machines' IM-4 moon lander will carry six NASA payloads under a contract with the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. A new drill experiment built by the European Space Agency to hunt for water near the moon's south pole, will be aboard. Intuitive Machines' first moon lander, called IM-1 Odysseus, tipped over after breaking a landing leg while attempting to land in 2024. The second lander, the IM-2 Athena, fell on its side during a lunar south pole landing attempt on March 6. The IM-3 moon lander is under construction now.
