Intuitive Machines clinches $4.8 billion navigation services contract from NASA

By Utkarsh Shetti and Harshita Mary Varghese

(Reuters) -Intuitive Machines said on Tuesday it has bagged a navigation and communication services contract of up to $4.82 billion from NASA for missions in the near space region.

Shares of the space exploration company rose 52% to $8.21 in aftermarket trading and have more than doubled so far this year.

As part of the contract, which has a base period of five years with an additional five-year option period, Intuitive will deploy lunar relay satellites and provide communication and navigation services to aid NASA's Artemis campaign.

The contract would see Intuitive debut its lunar satellite constellations that will enable enhanced data and transmission services as well as autonomous operations.

"We see the win today as significant validation towards Intuitive's outlook and its ability to continue to win additional contracts," said Andres Sheppard, senior analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Under NASA's Artemis program, the space agency aims to send commercial robot landers to the moon on science scouting missions and return astronauts to Earth's natural satellite this decade.

NASA had paid Intuitive $118 million to build and fly Odysseus, which in February became the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon in half a century. The spacecraft, however, lost power and went dormant after a lopsided landing that hindered operations and scientific output.

Odysseus was also the first lunar landing ever by a commercially manufactured and operated space vehicle.

NASA is counting on a series of low-budget, private excursions to the moon to serve as pathfinders for missions carrying astronauts this decade. The plan allows financial room for failure and offers companies big incentives to succeed on a shoestring.

(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija, Utkarsh Shetti and Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)