Moon launch sends Intuitive Machines shares skyrocketing

The Nova-C lander would also be the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon since Apollo 17’s Challenger lunar module in December 1972.

The Nova-C lander was launched shortly after 1 a.m. Eastern time from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. About 48 minutes later, SpaceX confirmed the lander’s separation from SpaceX’s second-stage booster.

The lander then established a stable attitude, solar charging and radio-communications contact with the company’s mission-operations center in Houston, according to Intuitive Machines.

The launch, which was originally scheduled for early Wednesday, was pushed back 24 hours due to a technical issue. Shares of Intuitive Machines ended Wednesday’s session down 3.3%, following a 2.8% drop on Tuesday.

Related: Intuitive Machines’ shares fall as historic moon mission delayed

Andrew Chanin, chief executive of Procure AM, the issuer of the Procure Space exchange-traded fund
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said the success of missions such as IM-1 bodes well for the broader space sector. “I think it could be very encouraging for the overall industry,” he told MarketWatch.

While space isn’t a primary focus for many investors, Chanin said missions such as this one raise the industry’s profile. “There’s a chance that space could have that ‘AI’ moment,” he said, referring to the emergence of artificial intelligence in recent years. “I don’t know if it has the same allure. Could it become more prime time?” he said.

“I personally believe that space is much more important than people give it credit for,” he added. “It’s not science fiction.”

The Nova-C lander was originally scheduled to reach the lunar surface on Feb. 22.

Related: These are the space stocks to watch in 2024

The IM-1 mission is Intuitive Machines’ first lunar-landing attempt within NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which is part of the Artemis program that aims to eventually return U.S. astronauts to the moon.

The launch is timed for the monthly lunar-blackout period. Nova-C will land near the moon’s south pole, where the correct lighting conditions are available for only a few days each month.

The IM-1 mission is carrying NASA science and technology instruments focusing on plume-surface interactions, space-weather and lunar-surface interactions, radio astronomy, precision-landing technologies and a communication and navigation node for future autonomous navigation technologies, according to the space agency.

Commercial moon landings are considered important scouting missions for the Artemis program. Last month, NASA said it is targeting September 2025 for its first crewed Artemis mission around the moon and September 2026 for its Artemis mission to land astronauts near the lunar south pole. 

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Chanin described the “cislunar economy” — cislunar is defined as being between the Earth and the moon or the moon’s orbit — as a huge opportunity over the next couple of decades, and pointed to the growing commercial and governmental need to send spacecraft and satellites into low-Earth orbit. “I think there’s a much more immediate race for establishing a presence in low-Earth orbit,” he said. “I think that [in] each of these domains, both low-Earth orbit and cislunar economy, communications companies and launch providers will be important players.”

But complex lunar missions in particular bring a high level of risk. Last month, private U.S. space company Astrobotic Technology ended its troubled mission to place a lander on the moon.

Also in January, Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, successfully landed on the moon, but the probe was upside down on the lunar surface in an image taken by SLIM’s rover.

Intuitive Machines’ shares have fallen 85% in the last 52 weeks, compared with the S&P 500 index’s SPX gain of 23%.