Intuitive Machines Inc (NASDAQ:LUNR) shares soared then fell into the red as investor optimism around a newly announced contract win with NASA faded.
Shares of Intuitive Machines added more than 11% in premarket trade but reversed course and traded down 4.7% at $5.70 shortly before the market closed on Thursday.
The space infrastructure and services firm announced on Wednesday evening that it has won a $30 million contract to complete a Lunar Terrain vehicle Services Feasibility Assessment for the space agency.
The company will create a feasibility roadmap to develop and deploy a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) on the Moon using its Nova-D cargo-class lunar lander.
It said it will work with its Moon Reusable Autonomous Crewed Exploration Rover (RACER) global team partners, including AVL, Boeing, Michelin and Northrop Grumman, to design a robust LTV design architecture with advanced power management, autonomous driving, communications, and navigation systems for lunar exploration.
“This procurement strategically aligns with the company’s flight-proven capability to deliver payloads to the surface of the Moon under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, further solidifying our position as a proven commercial contractor in lunar exploration,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus commented.
“Our global team is on a path to provide essential lunar infrastructure services to NASA in a project that would allow the company to retain ownership of the vehicle for commercial utilization during periods of non-NASA activity over approximately ten years of lunar surface activity.”