Intuitive Machines secures a $9.8 million government contract to advance its Orbital Transfer Vehicle design before manufacturing.
Quiver AI Summary
Intuitive Machines, Inc., a prominent space technology and infrastructure services company, has announced the awarding of a $9.8 million Phase Two government contract to advance its Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) through its Critical Design Review, a key engineering milestone prior to manufacturing. This contract enhances the company's government portfolio and highlights the growing demand for its in-space mobility solutions, expanding beyond lunar deliveries. The OTV, built on proven Nova-C lander technology, is designed to transport payloads of about 2,100 kilograms to various destinations including Medium Earth Orbit and interplanetary locations. CEO Steve Altemus stated that the OTV represents an evolution of their lunar missions and positions Intuitive Machines to capitalize on the expanding market for logistics in space. The Critical Design Review is set to facilitate manufacturing and flight integration by 2026, paving the way for a new class of on-orbit logistics missions for diverse customers.
Potential Positives
- Intuitive Machines secured a significant $9.8 million Phase Two government contract to advance its Orbital Transfer Vehicle, signaling strong growth in its government portfolio.
- The contract reflects increasing demand for the Company’s in-space mobility solutions, indicating a positive market outlook beyond lunar operations.
- The OTV's development builds on proven technology from successful lunar missions, enhancing the Company's credibility and competitive positioning in the space industry.
- The anticipated manufacturing and flight integration timeline positions Intuitive Machines to capitalize on emerging opportunities in the rapidly growing market for in-space logistics by 2026.
Potential Negatives
- Reliance on a limited number of suppliers for certain materials and components could hinder production and operational capacity.
- The company's history of losses and failure to achieve profitability raises concerns about its long-term financial viability.
- There is inherent risk in their ability to successfully manage growth and operational complexities in a competitive commercial spaceflight market.
FAQ
What is the significance of the $9.8 million contract for Intuitive Machines?
The contract advances the Orbital Transfer Vehicle through Critical Design Review, supporting its government portfolio and demand for in-space mobility solutions.
How does the Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) enhance space logistics?
The OTV is engineered for high-agility transfers and can deliver payloads across various orbits, enhancing logistics for government and commercial missions.
What is the anticipated payload capacity of the OTV?
The Orbital Transfer Vehicle is designed with an anticipated payload capacity of approximately 2,100 kilograms.
What missions can the OTV support?
The OTV can support missions to Medium Earth Orbit, Geostationary Orbit, Lagrange Points, and interplanetary destinations.
When is Intuitive Machines expected to start manufacturing the OTV?
Manufacturing and flight integration for the OTV are expected to begin as early as 2026.
Disclaimer: This is an AI-generated summary of a press release distributed by GlobeNewswire. The model used to summarize this release may make mistakes. See the full release here.
$LUNR Insider Trading Activity
$LUNR insiders have traded $LUNR stock on the open market 12 times in the past 6 months. Of those trades, 0 have been purchases and 12 have been sales.
Here’s a breakdown of recent trading of $LUNR stock by insiders over the last 6 months:
- KAMAL SEYED GHAFFARIAN has made 0 purchases and 5 sales selling 362,286 shares for an estimated $4,370,847.
- PETER MCGRATH (SVP and CFO) has made 0 purchases and 2 sales selling 110,074 shares for an estimated $1,158,271.
- ANNA CHIARA JONES (GC & Corporate Secretary) has made 0 purchases and 3 sales selling 38,492 shares for an estimated $334,229.
- STEVEN VONTUR (See Remarks) has made 0 purchases and 2 sales selling 13,794 shares for an estimated $297,233.
To track insider transactions, check out Quiver Quantitative's insider trading dashboard.
$LUNR Hedge Fund Activity
We have seen 145 institutional investors add shares of $LUNR stock to their portfolio, and 78 decrease their positions in their most recent quarter.
Here are some of the largest recent moves:
- D. E. SHAW & CO., INC. added 2,905,772 shares (+250.1%) to their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $21,648,001
- BANK OF AMERICA CORP /DE/ added 2,132,332 shares (+3728.4%) to their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $15,885,873
- GOTHAM ASSET MANAGEMENT, LLC added 2,112,674 shares (+inf%) to their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $15,739,421
- STATE STREET CORP added 1,852,280 shares (+36.6%) to their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $13,799,486
- MILLENNIUM MANAGEMENT LLC added 1,624,016 shares (+1613.9%) to their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $12,098,919
- VOYA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LLC added 1,518,219 shares (+inf%) to their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $11,310,731
- CITADEL ADVISORS LLC added 1,094,737 shares (+inf%) to their portfolio in Q1 2025, for an estimated $8,155,790
To track hedge funds' stock portfolios, check out Quiver Quantitative's institutional holdings dashboard.
$LUNR Analyst Ratings
Wall Street analysts have issued reports on $LUNR in the last several months. We have seen 4 firms issue buy ratings on the stock, and 1 firms issue sell ratings.
Here are some recent analyst ratings:
- Canaccord Genuity issued a "Buy" rating on 05/14/2025
- Cantor Fitzgerald issued a "Overweight" rating on 05/14/2025
- Benchmark issued a "Buy" rating on 03/25/2025
- Roth MKM issued a "Buy" rating on 03/11/2025
- B of A Securities issued a "Underperform" rating on 02/05/2025
To track analyst ratings and price targets for $LUNR, check out Quiver Quantitative's $LUNR forecast page.
$LUNR Price Targets
Multiple analysts have issued price targets for $LUNR recently. We have seen 6 analysts offer price targets for $LUNR in the last 6 months, with a median target of $14.5.
Here are some recent targets:
- Ronald Epstein from B of A Securities set a target price of $10.5 on 07/16/2025
- David Strauss from Barclays set a target price of $13.0 on 05/22/2025
- Austin Moeller from Canaccord Genuity set a target price of $21.5 on 05/14/2025
- Andres Sheppard from Cantor Fitzgerald set a target price of $16.0 on 05/14/2025
- Josh Sullivan from Benchmark set a target price of $16.0 on 03/25/2025
- Suji Desilva from Roth MKM set a target price of $12.0 on 03/11/2025
Full Release
HOUSTON, July 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, “Intuitive Machines,” or the “Company”), a leading space technology and infrastructure services company, has secured a $9.8 million Phase Two government contract to advance its Orbital Transfer Vehicle (“OTV”) through Critical Design Review (“CDR”)—the final engineering milestone on a previously disclosed contract, before manufacturing begins. The Phase Two of the contract expands the Company’s growing government portfolio and signals increasing demand for its in-space mobility solutions beyond lunar surface delivery.
Intuitive Machines believes this non-NASA award reinforces the Company’s strategic move to diversify its customer base and deliver orbital capabilities that span commercial, civil, and national security space operations.
Built on the flight-proven Nova-C lander architecture, the OTV draws heritage from hardware and designs that have been successfully validated in two lunar missions, including trajectory refinement maneuvers, lunar orbit insertion, and main engine firings during descent.
“Our OTV is a direct evolution of our lunar surface delivery missions—positioning us to expand into the rapidly growing market for in-space logistics,” said Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus. “We’re leveraging our flight-proven technology to operate a mission-ready service that delivers customer payloads across orbits—from Earth to the Moon and beyond.”
With an anticipated payload capacity of approximately 2,100 kilograms, the OTV is engineered for high-agility, time-efficient transfer of spacecraft and mission hardware across a wide range of destinations, including:
- Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)
- Geostationary Orbit (GEO)
- Lagrange Points
- Cislunar Injection Trajectories
- Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO)
- Low Lunar Orbit (LLO)
- Interplanetary Destinations
The vehicle’s optimized structure and propulsion architecture support flexible mission profiles and can evolve to meet future orbital servicing, logistics, and communications needs.
Part of Intuitive Machines’ delivery service pillar, the OTV complements the Company’s growing portfolio of lunar landers, Earth reentry vehicles, and space-based data transmission infrastructure—delivering end-to-end mobility solutions for the Earth-Moon economy.
With Critical Design Review underway, Intuitive Machines is preparing to begin manufacturing and flight integration as early as 2026—positioning the Company to support a new class of on-orbit logistics missions in service of government, commercial, and exploration customers.
About Intuitive Machines
Intuitive Machines is a diversified space technology, infrastructure, and services company focused on fundamentally disrupting lunar access economics. In 2024, Intuitive Machines successfully landed the Company’s Nova-C class lunar lander, on the Moon, returning the United States to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. In 2025, Intuitive Machines returned to the lunar south pole with a second lander. The Company’s products and services are focused through three pillars of space commercialization: Delivery Services, Data Transmission Services, and Infrastructure as a Service. For more information, please visit intuitivemachines.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These statements that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “strive,” “would,” “strategy,” “outlook,” the negative of these words or other similar expressions, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. These forward-looking statements include but are not limited to statements regarding: our expectations and plans relating to our OTV. These forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s predictions, projections, or expectations based upon currently available information and data. Our actual results, performance or achievements may differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The following important factors and uncertainties, among others, could cause actual outcomes or results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements in this presentation: our reliance upon the efforts of our Board and key personnel to be successful; our limited operating history; our failure to manage our growth effectively; competition from existing or new companies; unsatisfactory safety performance of our spaceflight systems or security incidents at our facilities; failure of the market for commercial spaceflight to achieve the growth potential we expect; any delayed launches, launch failures, failure of our satellites or lunar landers to reach their planned orbital locations, significant increases in the costs related to launches of satellites and lunar landers, and insufficient capacity available from satellite and lunar lander launch providers; our customer concentration; risks associated with commercial spaceflight, including any accident on launch or during the journey into space; risks associated with the handling, production and disposition of potentially explosive and ignitable energetic materials and other dangerous chemicals in our operations; our reliance on a limited number of suppliers for certain materials and supplied components; failure of our products to operate in the expected manner or defects in our products; counterparty risks on contracts entered into with our customers and failure of our prime contractors to maintain their relationships with their counterparties and fulfill their contractual obligations; failure to successfully defend protest from other bidders for government contracts; failure to comply with various laws and regulations relating to various aspects of our business and any changes in the funding levels of various governmental entities with which we do business; our failure to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets and know how; our failure to comply with the terms of third-party open source software our systems utilize; our ability to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, and to address and remediate material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting; the U.S. government’s budget deficit and the national debt, as well as any inability of the U.S. government to complete its budget process for any government fiscal year, and our dependence on U.S. government contracts and funding by the government for the government contracts; our failure to comply with U.S. export and import control laws and regulations and U.S. economic sanctions and trade control laws and regulations; uncertain global macro-economic and political conditions (including as a result of a failure to raise the “debt ceiling”) and rising inflation; our history of losses and failure to achieve profitability and our need for substantial additional capital to fund our operations; the fact that our financial results may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter; our holding company status; the risk that our business and operations could be significantly affected if it becomes subject to any securities litigation or stockholder activism; our public securities’ potential liquidity and trading; and other public filings and press releases other factors detailed under the section titled Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors of our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), the section titled Part I, Item 2, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and the section titled Part II. Item 1A. “Risk Factors” in our most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and in our subsequent filings with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and the Investors section of our website at www.investors.intuitivemachines.com investors.intuitivemachines.com.
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