Intuitive Machines stock plummets after second apparent sideways moon landing

Akash Sriram

Fri, Mar 7, 2025, 2:13 AM 2 min read

By Akash Sriram

(Reuters) - Intuitive Machines' shares tumbled 34% successful premarket trading connected Friday aft its 2nd satellite lander, Athena, appeared to person landed connected its side, mirroring the company's archetypal lunar landing effort past year.

The six-legged Athena lander, touched down astatine a tract astir 100 miles (160 km) from the moon's southbound pole, but Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said information showed that the lander was connected its side.

The sideways presumption complicates powerfulness procreation from its star panels, rendering the ngo "off-nominal," according to the company.

Intuitive already received astir 90% of its imaginable $120 cardinal declaration for landing, but immoderate milestone payments beryllium connected payloads being operational, according to Canaccord Genuity expert Austin Moeller.

Shares of the Houston, Texas-based institution closed 20% little connected Thursday, aft much than doubling successful the past 12 months up to past close.

The company's shares, which went nationalist astir 2 years ago, are susceptible to precocious volatility, with 56% disposable for trade.

Athena carried 11 payloads and technological instruments to the moon, including a drill to cheque for h2o ice, different resources successful the lunar soil, the archetypal information halfway and cellular web connected the moon.

Separately, SpaceX's Starship mega rocket, the largest successful the world, exploded connected Thursday, minutes aft launch, raining debris disconnected the seashore of Florida and the Bahamas, successful what was the Elon Musk-led company's 2nd consecutive failure.

As portion of NASA's strategy to rekindle lunar exploration with reduced costs, Intuitive is among respective companies starring the U.S.'s private-sector instrumentality to the moon.

Austin-based Firefly Aerospace implicit the play celebrated a cleanable touchdown of its Blue Ghost lander, marking the astir palmy brushed landing by a backstage institution to date.

"It (sideways landing) whitethorn person an interaction connected (Intuitive's) credibility, but we inactive deliberation that they are 1 of the amended positioned companies to capitalize connected the industry," said Andres Sheppard, elder expert astatine Cantor Fitzgerald.

"In our presumption astatine least, it's not indicative of the institution present being successful a dire situation."

(Reporting by Akash Sriram successful Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)