Al Root

Moon exploration company Intuitive Machines has again achieved a great technical success in space.

For investors, it probably means some stock volatility.

At 7:16 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, Intuitive Machines' second lunar lander, named Athena, blasted into space atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. At 8:01 p.m., the lander separate from the Falcon 9. The autonomous lander powered on and made contact with ground systems at about 8:15 p.m.

Now it's headed to the moon. It arrives in about a week, landing near the moon's south pole.

Aboard Athena is NASA technology. It's part of the commercial lunar payload services program, in which the National Aeronautics and Space Administration buys services from private U.S. companies. NASA has always partnered with companies, but these days it's letting private industry design and operate the vehicles. NASA is only paying for the ride.

Athena is Intuitive Machines' second lunar mission. It's first lander, Odysseus, launched about a year ago. That mission led to some wild trading in Intuitive stock.

Shares jumped 34.5% on Feb. 15, 2024, after Odysseus launched on a SpaceX rocket. Shares gained another 64% over the following two days.

Those gains took shares from about $5 to roughly $11. They sold off while the lander traveled to the moon and then jumped almost 16% to just under $10 apiece upon the moon landing. Shares then fell 35% after the lander tipped over. That decline sent shares to just above $6 a share.

NASA characterized the landing as a success and through Wednesday, Intuitive stock has risen another 145% since the lander tipped over.

Trading Intuitive stock has been difficult, but there's no denying the technical success.

Trading in the coming days probably won't repeat the 2024 experience, but investors should brace for volatility. Intuitive stock jumped 7.1% on Wednesday, closing at $16.50 a share, while the S&P 500 finished flat and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 0.4%. That gain was in anticipation of the second launch.

In premarket trading Thursday, shares rose 5.2%.

Intuitive isn't expected to be profitable in 2025, but Wall Street projects profits and positive free cash flow in 2026 and beyond. Sales in 2026 are projected to be some $460 million, according to FactSet, up from about $350 million expected in 2025.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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February 27, 2025 06:09 ET (11:09 GMT)

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