2 Space Stocks You've Never Heard Of Before Just Won $439 Million to Build NASA Lunar Rovers

By now, you've heard the news: Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR) has mislaid the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) contract, astatine slightest for now, "helping" to acceptable the signifier for a rapid-fire 33% sell-off successful the abstraction stock's shares past week. Wall Street analysts had been betting connected NASA to reward Intuitive, the archetypal abstraction institution to onshore connected the satellite since the Apollo epoch fractional a period ago, with a lunar rover contract, too.

Instead, NASA picked 2 lower-profile abstraction companies to physique its archetypal 2 rovers: privately held Astrolab and Lunar Outpost.

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NASA makes its prime

As portion of a wide-ranging "update connected Moon Base rovers, landers, missions" past month, NASA announced that it has awarded 2 firm-fixed-price contracts for lunar rovers. Astrolab volition person $219 cardinal to physique its Crewed Lunar Vehicle, oregon CLV‑1, based connected the company's Jeep Wrangler-sized "FLEX" rover design.

The 1-ton conveyance tin question astatine 6 mph and tin transportation 2 astronauts and/or up to 1.6 metric tons of supplies. Astronauts tin thrust it, oregon it tin beryllium operated remotely. Partners, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE), Axiom Space, and Venturi Space, assisted successful processing it.

NASA awarded a akin $220 cardinal to Lunar Outpost to physique a Pegasus rover -- besides a modified and lighter design, this 1 based connected Lunar Outpost's Eagle rover.

Pegasus is described arsenic having manual, remote-control, and autonomous driving modes and tin question up to 9 mph. Lunar Outpost says Pegasus should person a lifespan of astir a twelvemonth and tin question astir 560 miles earlier it indispensable beryllium replaced. To physique the vehicle, Lunar Outpost enlisted a squad of overmuch better-known partners, including General Motors (NYSE: GM), Goodyear Tire & Rubber (NASDAQ: GT), and Leidos (NYSE: LDOS).

What happens next?

Both Astrolab and Lunar Outpost are expected to walk the adjacent 18 months designing, building, and investigating their rovers, implying they should beryllium acceptable to spell by December 2027. Assuming each goes well, they volition past beryllium loaded into Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mk 1 lunar landers, carried by Blue Origin New Glenn rockets, for transportation to the satellite -- with plentifulness of clip to travel NASA's astronauts connected the 2028 Artemis IV satellite landing and consequent missions.

(Note: On May 28, a New Glenn rocket exploded during a regular motor test, destroying Blue Origin's motorboat pad successful the process. This may push the timeline retired a bit, and springiness Astrolab and Lunar Outpost adjacent much time.)