Latest news with #IM-2
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.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Dead Athena moon lander seen inside its crater grave from lunar orbit (photos)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. We now have shots of the Athena moon lander's final resting place. Athena, the second lunar lander from Houston company Intuitive Machines, tipped over during its touchdown on March 6, ending up on its side within a small crater near the moon's south pole. This orientation prevented the lander's solar panels from capturing enough sunlight, and Intuitive Machines declared Athena dead on March 7. (The company's first moon lander, named Odysseus, also tipped over during its historic February 2024 touchdown but was able to operate for longer on the lunar surface.) Athena beamed home a few shots of its surroundings before giving up the ghost. And we now have views of the lander and its crater grave from on high, courtesy of NASA's sharp-eyed Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). On March 7, LRO captured a gorgeous oblique photo of Athena and its landing site — the Mons Mouton region, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the lunar south pole. Then, three days later, the probe snapped another pic, which provided a closer look at Athena on the shadowed floor of a 65-foot-wide (20 meters) crater. Related: Private Intuitive Machines moon lander declared dead after falling on its side in crater at the lunar south pole Athena's mission, known as IM-2, was supported by NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which puts agency science instruments on private moon landers. The experiments on board Athena — and the ride-along robots, like Colorado company Lunar Outpost's MAPP rover and Intuitive Machines' hopping spacecraft "Grace" — didn't get their planned science time on the lunar surface. But the lander did survive for a while before its batteries died. And its brief life could help pave the way for future work in the area, which is thought to harbor large stores of water ice, Intuitive Machines said. "This southern pole region is lit by harsh sun angles and limited direct communication with the Earth," the company wrote in a March 7 mission update. "This area has been avoided due to its rugged terrain, and Intuitive Machines believes the insights and achievements from IM-2 will open this region for further space exploration." Related stories: — Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: A guide to NASA's venerable lunar orbiter — The moon: Everything you need to know about Earth's companion — There's lots of water on the moon for astronauts. But is it safe to drink? Athena hit the gray dirt just four days after another CLPS-supported lander, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, touched down in the moon's northern hemisphere. LRO, which has been studying the moon from lunar orbit since 2009, has also captured photos of Blue Ghost. The Firefly lander remains healthy and is expected to continue operating until March 16, when the sun sets over its locale.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Photo taken on the moon shows what went wrong with an American space company's latest mission
Aerospace company Intuitive Machines launched its lunar lander Athena in February. The lunar lander traveled through space in SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. It landed on its side in a crater 820 feet away from the intended landing site and is no longer functioning. Intuitive Machines, an American space company, launched its lunar lander Athena to the moon in late February, but the craft had a rough touchdown, landing in a crater and flipping over on its side. Athena landed about 820 feet away from its intended landing site, which was in the Mons Mouton region on the moon's south pole, Intuitive Machines said in a press release on Friday. "Images downlinked from Athena on the lunar surface confirmed that Athena was on her side," Intuitive Machines said, adding that its batteries depleted some time after landing. The company said it "does not expect Athena to recharge," given the direction of the sun, the orientation of Athena's solar panels, and the frigid temperatures in the crater it had landed in. The lander was transported to the moon on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. Representatives for Intuitive Machines did not respond to a request for comment. A photo shared by the company showed the lander on its side on the surface of the moon, with some of the legs it is meant to stand on up in the air. Intuitive Machines said the mission, IM-2, was intended to "demonstrate lunar mobility, resource prospecting, and analysis of volatile substances from subsurface material." The company also said that despite the lander landing on its side, its teams are analyzing the data that was collected and that insights from the mission would open up the region, known for harsh conditions, to more space exploration. NASA also said Intuitive Machines was able to collect some data for the agency before the mission came to its earlier-than-expected end. "Our targeted landing site near the lunar South Pole is one of the most scientifically interesting, and geographically challenging locations on the Moon," Nicky Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA, said in a statement. "Each success and setback are opportunities to learn and grow, and we will use this lesson to propel our efforts to advance science, exploration, and commercial development as we get ready for human exploration of Mars." Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intuitive Machines (NasdaqGM:LUNR) Appoints James J. Frelk Amid 25% Price Dip
Intuitive Machines recently experienced a price decline of 25% last quarter. While the successful launch of its IM-2 mission and executive appointment of James J. Frelk should bolster confidence, broader market forces may have influenced the company's share performance. Intuitive Machines' decline aligns with heightened market volatility, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq down by 3.7% amidst concerns over ongoing tariffs, economic uncertainty, and weak performances by major tech companies like Tesla and Nvidia. Despite Intuitive Machines' strides in lunar exploration, market trends underscore how external factors can impact even innovative companies. The ongoing fluctuations in major indexes, such as the S&P 500's recent 2% drop, demonstrate the extent of investor caution, which seems to have overshadowed the company's individual achievements. These macroeconomic pressures appear to have played a significant role in Intuitive Machines' quarterly share price movement. Click here to discover the nuances of Intuitive Machines with our detailed analytical report. Over the last year, Intuitive Machines achieved a total shareholder return of 47.39%, outperforming both the US Market's 12.1% increase and the Aerospace & Defense industry's 19.8% growth. This impressive return can be partly attributed to the company's focus on lunar exploration, highlighted by the successful IM-2 mission launched in late February 2025. Additionally, the expansion of partnerships, such as with Columbia Sportswear for thermal management technologies, supports its technological advancements. The inclusion in the S&P Aerospace & Defense Select Industry Index in December 2024 further strengthened its market presence. Financially, the company has shown robust revenue forecasts, with expected growth significantly outpacing the broader US market. However, the challenging profitability scenario, evidenced by increasing net losses and shareholder dilution, remains a concern. Despite setbacks, continued support from NASA, including a US$116.9 million contract for lunar payload deliveries in August 2024, showcases the value of Intuitive Machines' contributions to space exploration. See how Intuitive Machines measures up with our analysis of its intrinsic value versus market price. Assess the downside scenarios for Intuitive Machines with our risk evaluation. Got skin in the game with Intuitive Machines? Elevate how you manage them by using Simply Wall St's portfolio, where intuitive tools await to help optimize your investment outcomes. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include NasdaqGM:LUNR. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@ Sign in to access your portfolio
