WASHINGTON — Intuitive Machines says its first lunar lander mission has slipped into the third quarter of this yr as pursues a wider range of business opportunities.
In a May 11 earnings call, the primary for the corporate because it went public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger in February, Chief Executive Steve Altemus said that the corporate’s Nova-C lander being accomplished for its IM-1 mission can be “on the launch pad and preparing for liftoff” in mid to late third quarter.
The corporate announced in February plans for a June landing at Malapert A, a crater near the south pole of the moon. That date was a slip from a previously scheduled March launch, which the corporate said was linked to NASA’s decision to maneuver the landing site to Malapert A.
Altemus said the corporate made “significant progress” in testing of the lander in recent months, corresponding to structural tests to substantiate the vehicle could handle the stresses of launch and cryogenic tanking demonstrations. “Now we have some functional testing” still to do on the lander, he said, but didn’t elaborate on the character of those tests or their schedule ahead of shipping to Cape Canaveral for its Falcon 9 launch.
The brand new schedule “is slightly little bit of movement from initial expectations,” he acknowledged, and will affect the schedule of its second mission, IM-2, which had been set for the autumn.
The IM-1 mission is carrying payloads for NASA’s Industrial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program under a task order awarded in May 2019. At the moment, IM-1 was scheduled to land in July 2021. The duty order was originally valued at $77 million but, after several modifications that include the change in landing site, now has a complete value of $116.3 million, in response to federal contracting databases.
The corporate is racing with Astrobotic, which also received an initial CLPS task order in 2019, to be the primary American company to land on the moon. Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander was scheduled to launch this month on the primary Vulcan Centaur, but United Launch Alliance delayed that launch due to an anomaly during testing of a Centaur upper stage in March. ULA said this week it’s “protecting” a summer launch of Vulcan because it resumes pad tests of the rocket.
Other business
While Intuitive Machines is best known for its lunar landers, the corporate is branching out into other areas. The corporate partnered with KBR to win a NASA engineering services contract called Omnibus Multidiscipline Engineering Services (OMES) III April 18. The contract has a maximum value of $719 million over five years.
The OMES III contract is the biggest single contract that Intuitive Machines has won, Altemus said in the decision. He argued that the contract would help it grow its “orbital services” business line that can ultimately include satellite servicing and debris removal. “This win is of strategic importance, allowing us to support NASA in designing, developing and demonstrating critical technology required to support the emerging orbital servicing market.”
A NASA release in regards to the contract described it as providing “multidiscipline engineering services” that support “spaceflight, airborne, and ground system hardware and software, including development and validation of recent technologies to enable future space and science missions.” The discharge doesn’t specifically mention satellite servicing or related technologies beyond noting the contract involves work with the middle’s In-space Services projects division, amongst others.
The beginning of the OMES III contract is on hold, though, after one other bidder, SAIC, filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office on May 8. GAO has an Aug. 16 deadline to rule on the protest.
Altemus played down the protest, noting historical success rates for such bid protests of lower than 10%. “Now we have high confidence in our price offering to the federal government,” he said, adding that he didn’t know the small print of SAIC’s protest. “We’re confident that, once we get through this 100-day protest period for the GAO, the award will stand.”
Intuitive Machines submitted a proposal in March for a NASA competition to offer business services for its Near Space Network, which handles communications for missions in orbit and at distances of as much as two million kilometers from Earth. That features spacecraft that may function communications relays in Earth orbit and across the moon. NASA is predicted to make multiple contract awards within the third quarter.
Intuitive Machines is partnering with Raytheon, which Altemus said provides “the solutions and the heft that we’d need for more enterprise-class systems.” Intuitive Machines has plans to develop its own constellation of lunar data relay satellites to support its landers and other missions, and believes it’s ahead of competitors like Lockheed Martin subsidiary Crescent Space Services, which announced plans for an identical constellation in March.
The corporate may also lead a team called “Moon Racer” that can bid on NASA’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) competition for a crewed lunar rover. That team includes Northrop Grumman, Boeing, AVL, Michelin and Roush. NASA is predicted to release the LTV call for proposals later this month.
Northrop Grumman announced plans for the rover in November 2021, with it because the lead and Intuitive Machines providing the lander that delivered the rover. Altemus didn’t disclose why it was now the prime on the team. Several other firms, corresponding to teams led by Lockheed Martin, Leidos and Astrolab, are prone to submit bids.
Intuitive Machines reported $18.2 million in revenue within the quarter in comparison with $18.5 million in the primary quarter of 2022. The corporate’s work on its three NASA CLPS task orders provided two-thirds of its revenue within the quarter.
The corporate reported an operating lack of $14 million within the quarter in comparison with $4.5 million in the identical quarter a yr ago. That loss included $2.8 million in one-time costs related to the SPAC merger. The corporate is projecting $168 million to $274 million in revenue for 2023, and Erik Sallee, chief financial officer, said the corporate should report positive quarterly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by the fourth quarter.