Intuitive Machines (LUNR) Earnings Transcript

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DATE

Thursday, March 19, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• President and Chief Executive Officer — Stephen Altemus
• Chief Financial Officer — Peter McGrath

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TAKEAWAYS

• Q4 Revenue -- $44.8 million, primarily attributed to CLPS, ALMS, and NSNS execution, reflecting contract program timing and government budget delays.
• Q4 Gross Margin -- $8.5 million, or 19%, driven by higher-margin service revenue from NSNS and continued cost reductions across fixed-price contracts.
• SG&A Expense -- $40.2 million, with $10.8 million related to Lantaris acquisition transaction costs.
• Operating Loss -- $33.1 million, up from a loss of $13.4 million, primarily due to acquisition-related transaction expenses and ongoing investments in program execution and infrastructure.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- Negative $19.1 million, compared to negative $11.2 million, reflecting increased growth investment.
• Free Cash Flow for the Year -- Negative $56 million, a year-over-year improvement of $11.7 million despite higher capital investment in the NSNS constellation.
• Year-End Cash Balance -- $583 million, inclusive of a $15 million Kinetics acquisition outflow; $430 million subsequently used for the Lantaris acquisition, with post-acquisition cash at $272 million in February after the $175 million capital raise.
• Backlog as of February End -- $943 million, up from $213.1 million at year end, incorporating the SDA Tranche 3 Tracking Layer contract but not major pending awards such as the next CLPS mission, LTV, Golden Dawn, or additional satellites.
• 2026 Revenue Guidance -- $900 million to $1 billion, with two-thirds of revenue supported by contracted backlog and an expectation for positive adjusted EBITDA for the year.
• Business Mix Evolution -- Approximately 40% commercial, 40% civil space, and 20% national security customers, according to management's current portfolio breakdown.
• Kinetics Acquisition Impact -- Q4 included first consolidated quarter with Kinetics, which generates roughly 14% positive EBITDA and higher gross margins than legacy segments.
• Lantaris Acquisition -- Closed January 13; 2025 results exclude Lantaris, but the 2026 outlook and forward strategy are based on a consolidated platform.
• 2026 Revenue Visibility -- Management stated, "roughly two-thirds of our expected 2026 revenue is already supported by contracted backlog."
• Growth Investment -- $175 million strategic equity investment completed in February, intended to advance communications data processing networks and platform extension.
• New Business Awards -- Recent contracts include the Space Development Agency's Tranche 3 Tracking Layer, which expands national security revenue and backlog.

SUMMARY

The combination of Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ:LUNR) and Lantaris marks a significant transformation in scale and capability, enabling the company to pursue larger multiyear government, defense, and commercial infrastructure contracts. Management outlined an operating model integrating "build, connect, operate," underpinning its move toward higher-margin, recurring infrastructure and service revenue anchored by large-scale programs such as NSNS, LCBS, and GEO satellite production lines. Executives detailed operational momentum in three core satellite platforms, with the 1,300 series cited as the industry's most proven GEO platform, and discussed strategic initiatives in lunar data relay, lunar surface mobility, and expanding deep space communications. The company's multi-domain strategy is supported by a backlog nearing $1 billion, with anticipated growth from high-probability contract awards and expansion into national security and international partnerships.

• Management commented that Lantaris’ integration is "well ahead of schedule," with customer response described as "excited about the opportunities" from the business combination.
• "we have already submitted two proposals post closing that we probably would not have submitted if we had not had a combined company," CFO Peter McGrath said regarding Lantaris' immediate impact on business development.
• The LTV contract award is described as "imminent," with expectations for one primary and potentially a second "hot backup" contract, and management noted flexibility in mission timing not directly tied to Artemis sequencing.
• Backlog conversion expectations are 60%-65% revenue realization in 2026 and 35%-40% in subsequent years, per management disclosure.
• Strategic partnerships, including agreements with Leonardo, Telespazio, and discussions with JAXA, target the creation of interconnected lunar communication networks for the U.S., Europe, and Japan.
• "NASA provides that capability through the Deep Space Network. Spacecraft operators request time on that network and pay for access to communicate with their deep space missions. Deep space communications bandwidth, though, is limited and is multiple times oversubscribed," CEO Stephen Altemus said, highlighting a competitive advantage for the company's lunar relay initiative.
• Investments in digital processors and the 1,300 series satellite are positioned by management as expanding the total addressable market for commercial GEO platforms.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• CLPS: Commercial Lunar Payload Services, a NASA initiative contracting private companies to deliver instruments and cargo to the lunar surface.
• NSNS: Near Space Network Services, a contract supporting communications, navigation, and timing infrastructure in cislunar space and beyond.
• LTV: Lunar Terrain Vehicle, a program for a lunar surface mobility asset providing recurring mission support.
• LCBS: Likely refers to a major infrastructure services program cited by management as a recurring revenue anchor; specific breakdown not detailed in transcript.
• Tranche: Discrete procurement phase or batch, frequently used for satellite constellation deployments within government space contracts.
• Power and Propulsion Element (PPE): Highest-powered solar electric propulsion spacecraft developed for NASA's lunar Gateway Station, enabling power, communications, and attitude control in cislunar orbit.
• GEO: Geostationary Earth Orbit, a space domain crucial for communications satellites remaining fixed relative to a point on Earth's surface.
• LEO: Low Earth Orbit, the area of space around Earth extending up to 2,000 kilometers, heavily used for defense and observational satellites.
• Golden Dawn: Referenced as an upcoming contract opportunity; specific details not explained in transcript.
• Edge Computing (in space): On-orbit data processing and decision-making closer to data sources to reduce latency and dependency on terrestrial centers.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Stephen Altemus, and Chief Financial Officer, Peter McGrath, are leading the call today. Before we begin, please note that some of the information discussed during today's call will consist of forward-looking statements, setting forth our current expectations with respect to the future of our business, the economy, and other events. The company's actual results could differ materially from those indicated in any forward-looking statements due to many factors. These factors are described under forward-looking statements in the company's earnings press release and the company's most recent 10-Ks and 10-Qs filed with the SEC. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.

We also expect to discuss certain financial measures and information that are non-GAAP measures as defined in the applicable SEC rules and regulations. Reconciliations to the company's GAAP measures are included in the earnings release filed on Form 8-Ks. Finally, we posted an earnings call presentation to our website which provides additional context on our operational and financial performance. You can find this presentation on our investor relations page at intuitivemachines.com/investors. I will now turn the call over to Stephen Altemus.

Stephen Altemus: Good morning, everyone. 2025 was a transformational year for Intuitive Machines, Inc. We began with a focus on execution and growth. As we look back and reflect we completed our second lunar mission, expanded into national security space programs, closed the acquisition of Kinetics Aerospace, and announced the acquisition of Lantaris Space Systems. Looking forward, these acquisitions significantly expand our scale, addressable market, and growth opportunities. As a result, we expect 2026 revenue to approach $1 billion, nearly a 5x increase from 2025. Our combined portfolio has a diversified revenue mix with approximately 40% commercial business, 40% civil space, and 20% national security customers, evolving towards a balanced portfolio across all three customer bases.

Today, the United States' strategic importance of the moon continues to intensify with the President's executive order to lead the world in space exploration and return Americans to the moon by 2028. To do so, NASA is currently preparing for Artemis II while reformulating Artemis III. In parallel, the agency has increased the cadence of robotic and human missions going to the moon to compete with China. Our strategy will continue to be moon-first infrastructure, and we are focused on growing the business across all space domains: LEO, GEO, cislunar, and out to Mars and beyond.

Through our early missions, we established the technical foundation of the company with a mission-driven model where revenue was tied to a concentrated customer base and mission outcomes were binary, like delivering NASA payloads to the lunar surface. These early delivery missions under CLPS established one of the first commercial pathways to the moon and we believe give us a competitive advantage to future growth in the space domain. Our mission built the operational expertise required for long-duration, persistent, infrastructure systems that will support sustained surface operations.

At the same time, Lantaris Space Systems was operating on a larger scale, more established spacecraft platform market, with its 300 series, 500 series, and 1,300 series satellite systems which operate in more mature, expansive markets with consistent and predictable revenue generation. Historically, the Lantaris model was straightforward: build reliable, cost-effective spacecraft to a customer's specifications and hand it over for operational life which should exceed 10 years. Bringing these capabilities together, both Intuitive Machines, Inc. and Lantaris, creates a fundamentally different company. Today, we are focused on taking proven production platforms and applying them to new growth markets as a prime operator. Our operating model is organized around three integrated capabilities.

They are to build, to connect, and to operate space infrastructure. Build is where we design, manufacture, and deliver spacecraft, landers, satellites, surface systems, propulsion and avionic systems, for government and commercial customers. This represents our business today. Starting later this year with IM-3 or Mission 3 and our first lunar data relay satellite, our connect capability integrates deployed assets into communications, navigation, command, control, and data relay networks that enable persistent connectivity. Our Near Space Network Services contract, which includes data services, navigation, and timing capabilities, accelerates how quickly we can reach our third capability, which is to operate. This is where we provide mission operations, hosted payload services, and other infrastructure-based offerings like the Lunar Terrain Vehicle services.

As we look at these three capabilities—build, connect, operate—each progresses the business towards higher-margin services, anchored by multibillion-dollar recurring revenue programs like LCBS, the TDRS service, Mars Telecom Network service, and Fission Surface Power. With the combined power of Intuitive Machines, Inc. and Lantaris, the company can now pursue opportunities as a prime for defense programs, proliferated network infrastructure, and other infrastructure operations with higher procurement win probabilities, driven by our scale, our technologies, and capabilities. Our current execution is grounded in the work our teams are building today for LEO, GEO, and lunar domains. In low Earth orbit, our team continues to execute under the Space Development Agency's proliferated warfighter space architecture.

Deliveries of the final 300 series satellite buses under Tranche 1 Tracking Layer are underway, with launch expected later this year. Work also continues on Tranche 2 and the recently awarded Tranche 3 Tracking Layer programs, which support proliferated constellations designed to detect and track missile launches. The 500 series platform, currently supporting high-resolution Earth observation for Vantor, formerly Maxar Intelligence, is part of a NASA-selected team for the Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer mission called EDGE. This award demonstrates how the 500 series spacecraft design can support commercial imaging, science missions, and national security applications. Moving outward to geostationary orbit, the 1,300 series spacecraft is the industry's most proven GEO communications platform.

Operating companies rely on these satellites in geostationary orbit as part of a multibillion-dollar communications market. Over the last 40 years, Lantaris has served customers as the world leader in geocommunication satellites, with over 3,000 aggregate years on orbit with 99.99% operational availability. The 1,300 series production line includes EchoStar, DISH Network, and two SiriusXM satellites. EchoStar 25 successfully launched last week. Our team is currently performing the satellite's on-orbit system checks before starting high-power direct-to-home broadcast services across North America. SiriusXM 11 is undergoing final performance and integration testing with shipment expected in the second quarter. Production of SiriusXM 12 continues in parallel.

Satellites in this class are designed to operate for more than a decade and support services such as broadband connectivity, media distribution, aviation communications, and enterprise networks on Earth. Based on the 1,300 series, and designed for NASA's Lunar Gateway Station, this first-of-a-kind Power and Propulsion Element is the highest-powered solar electric propulsion spacecraft ever built. NASA has invested over $1 billion in the PPE and the system is nearly complete. In January, the agency announced the PPE successful power-up confirming its ability to provide power, high-rate communications, attitude control, and the ability to maintain and maneuver between orbits. In the second quarter, we will integrate the spacecraft's rollout solar arrays in preparation for final delivery to NASA.

We have the ability to leverage the spacecraft design for future applications. At our Texas headquarters, with new expertise provided from Lantaris, we are building our first lunar data relay satellite and expect that satellite to launch with our IM-3 mission, which we believe will start the operational task orders portion of the $4.82 billion Near Space Network Services contract. We expect this first of five satellites to support future lunar missions which are all progressing through testing and integration in preparation for our next two contracted delivery missions. IM-3 is progressing well, as all robotic mechanisms from our Maryland facility delivered in the fourth quarter.

Now our team is working on lander assembly, integration, and test for the mission later this year. IM-4 remains on track for 2027, and the mission plan includes flying two additional lunar data relay satellites to open more connect services under the Near Space Network Services contract and recognize higher-margin revenue servicing, specifically NASA's Artemis IV human landing mission. The lunar data relay satellites are our first connected space infrastructure assets. They are connected to Earth by our partners' global ground stations. Collectively, this forms a secure space data network, a communications navigation architecture we intend to offer as a subscription data service with recurring revenue in conjunction with pay-by-the-minute operations.

We believe most of the market understands networks being provided for Earth from space, whether it is internet, satellite radio, or broadband. It is important to understand the distinction, however. We are creating a network for space from space—an internet for the solar system. Today, NASA provides that capability through the Deep Space Network. Spacecraft operators request time on that network and pay for access to communicate with their deep space missions. Deep space communications bandwidth, though, is limited and is multiple times oversubscribed. For example, NASA has indicated that live video from Artemis II will likely be transmitted at a low resolution. Intuitive Machines, Inc. is working to solve that challenge.

Higher data rates require our relay satellites and additional communications infrastructure operating between the moon and Earth. On Earth, Intuitive Machines, Inc. is expanding its network coverage, adding a new ground station partnership in Australia, and working to upgrade additional partner facilities around the world. The Australian just successfully downlinked data from the James Webb Space Telescope, confirming that it can operate within NASA's existing network and reduce its bandwidth constraints. For space, Intuitive Machines, Inc. continues to evolve globally, signing a strategic agreement with Leonardo and Telespazio to connect our lunar relay systems together and support European exploration missions. The next phase for the company is to operate the built and connected spacecraft as long-term infrastructure.

The immediate opportunity for that model is already captured in the Near Space Network Services contract. While the always-on network provides subscription-based data connection, additional value comes from operating hosted payloads and sensors to create new markets for science, reconnaissance, and exploration. The near-term catalyst for higher-margin infrastructure operations is surface mobility. The Lunar Terrain Vehicle program is structured as a long-duration service where the provider builds, delivers, and operates the vehicle on the surface over many years. When selected, the vehicle will become a mobility infrastructure asset on the moon connected to our space data network generating recurring revenue for NASA and commercial customers over time. Moving forward, the company sees growth opportunities from an operator's perspective.

These opportunities include tracking and data relay satellite services, Mars Telecom Network Services, and the Missile Defense Shield program, while also adapting the 1,300 series spacecraft class for Space Force for highly maneuverable satellites and evolving our satellite platforms for applications in the burgeoning orbital data center market. To support these growth opportunities, last month we completed a $175 million strategic equity investment to advance communications data processing networks, including extending flight-proven satellite platforms. Intuitive Machines, Inc. intends to invest in expanding its Near Space Network Service and establish a solar system internet.

Through investments in the Lantaris platforms, and specifically the 1,300 series, the company believes it can grow market share in geostationary orbit, expand capability around the moon, extend capability to Mars, and support emerging high-power on-orbit data processing and edge computing. I will now turn the call over to Peter McGrath for the financial results.

Peter McGrath: Thank you, Steve. Thanks to everyone joining us today. As Steve mentioned, we made strategic moves last year to transform Intuitive Machines, Inc. to become the next-generation space prime, providing delivery, data, and infrastructure services, emphasizing growth in communications, navigation, and space data network for defense, civil, and commercial markets. The decision to acquire Lantaris positions the company for sustainable long-term growth. As a reminder, we closed the Lantaris acquisition on January 13. Therefore, the 2025 financials do not include Lantaris. Q4 financials do include the impact of Kinetics, which was completed on October 1.

Before reviewing the quarter, I want to highlight earlier this month we were awarded a multiyear contract as part of the Space Development Agency's Tranche 3 Tracking Layer, which expands our roles supporting the national security space architecture. This award reinforces our diversification and market expansion into national security programs, supporting sustained long-term growth in backlog and revenue. Back to the quarter, Q4 2025 revenue was $44.8 million, driven primarily by CLPS, ALMS, and NSNS execution. While Q4 revenue reflected program timing and government budget delays, we exited the year with strong contract momentum and major awards already announced in early 2026.

Since year end, we were awarded the SDA Tranche 3, as referenced, and we expect decisions on large programs, including Lunar Terrain Vehicle services and NASA's CLPS CT-4 mission. O&M revenue was $14.7 million in the quarter. For the year, excluding revenue was up approximately 65% year over year, driven by continued growth across all key programs such as CLPS, the LTV work we were doing, and NSNS. Q4 gross margin came in strong at $8.5 million, which represents a 19% positive gross margin. The gross margin improvement was driven primarily by higher-margin services revenue such as NSNS as well as continued cost reductions across our fixed-price contracts.

Q4 was also our first quarter with Kinetics, and as previously discussed, Kinetics historically generates approximately 14% positive EBITDA and even higher gross margins. SG&A was $40.2 million in the quarter, including $10.8 million of acquisition-related transaction costs associated with the Lantaris acquisition. We also increased IRAD investment to align with our long-term growth strategy. Excluding these costs, underlying operating expenses remain consistent with prior quarters as we continued investing in program execution and infrastructure to support growth. Operating loss for the quarter was $33.1 million versus a loss of $13.4 million in 2024, driven primarily by acquisition-related transaction expenses as well as continued investment in program execution and infrastructure to support the company's growth.

Adjusted EBITDA was negative $19.1 million in the quarter, compared to negative $11.2 million last year, driven primarily by growth investments I just mentioned. Operating cash used was $7.3 million in the quarter, with capital expenditures of $15.6 million, primarily for our first NSNS satellite, resulting in negative free cash flow of $22.9 million in the quarter. For the year, free cash flow was negative $56 million, an $11.7 million improvement versus 2024. Free cash flow improved year over year despite higher capital investment in the NSNS constellation. This improvement was driven by $43.3 million less operating cash used, partially offset by a $31.5 million increase in capital expenditures.

We ended the year with a cash balance of $583 million, which includes $15 million of cash outflow for the acquisition of Kinetics. Since year end, $430 million of the cash was used for the acquisition of Lantaris, along with additional post-close reconciliations that align with the $450 million cash portion of the purchase price. We have a transition service agreement in place that will continue through the third quarter. As Steve mentioned, in February we completed a $175 million capital raise anchored by institutional investors to strengthen the company's balance sheet and provide capital to support the continued execution of our growth strategy.

Following this capital raise and outflows related to the Lantaris acquisition, our cash balance as of February was $272 million. As a reminder, this includes additional acquisition-related transaction and integration costs, as well as the start of some investment costs we outlined as part of our recent capital raise. Following the acquisition and our recent capital raise, we believe we have sufficient liquidity to fund current operations while continuing to invest in strategic growth initiatives. Backlog at year end was $213.1 million, compared to $235.9 million in 2025, reflecting the timing of several large program awards that were delayed by the government shutdown and appropriations process.

Approximately 60% to 65% of our backlog is expected to be revenue in 2026 and the remaining 35% to 40% in 2027 and beyond. Q4 backlog includes $22 million of new bookings, driven primarily by NSNS, as the fourth quarter is typically where we see the largest re-up in task orders for the following year. As of February month end, our combined company backlog is estimated at $943 million, which includes the recent award SDA Tranche 3 Tracking Layer contract, which was originally expected in Q4, but does not yet include key upcoming awards such as the next CLPS mission, LTV, Golden Dawn, and other commercial satellites.

Looking ahead, we expect additional backlog growth for several large multiyear NASA and national security programs currently moving through the government procurement cycle, including NASA's lunar terrain vehicle services, the next CLPS mission, Golden Dawn Initiatives, and the next phase of Fission Surface Power and orbital transfer vehicle programs. We will also continue to bid on large GEO bus via the 1,300 series platform. Historically, these were roughly one to two new satellite buses per year, which provides a solid base for our commercial market. As part of our growth strategy, we are making investments to increase flexibility of the satellite on orbit through the introduction of digital processors, which we believe increases future market share opportunities.

This, along with other investments in the 1,300 series satellite, will expand our total addressable market. As of March 11, our total shares outstanding are 216.8 million, with 159.4 million shares of Class A and 57.4 million shares of Class C. This includes the shares issued for both the Lantaris acquisition as well as the $175 million capital raise. Moving on to guidance, 2026 will be a transformational and record year for the company. With the acquisition of Lantaris completed in January, Intuitive Machines, Inc. enters 2026 as a fundamentally stronger, more competitive, and more diversified space infrastructure company.

Intuitive Machines, Inc. now operates across all space domains—from lunar services to proliferated national security space architectures and commercial GEO platforms—which, when combined, significantly expands both our addressable market and revenue base. For 2026, we expect revenue in the range of $900 million to $1 billion, representing a transformational step up in scale for the company. Importantly, roughly two-thirds of our expected 2026 revenue is already supported by contracted backlog, giving us strong visibility into our outlook. On the profitability side, we expect continued margin improvement and are targeting a positive adjusted EBITDA for the full year.

The primary drivers are scale from the Lantaris acquisition, expected growth in higher-margin service revenue such as NSNS and navigation services, and continued operational efficiencies across our fixed-price contracts. Since closing the Lantaris acquisition on January 13, we continue to finalize the combined company pro forma financial presentation and expect to provide that additional detail shortly. Before we get to Q&A, I want to take a moment to highlight our strong financial performance in 2025. We were able to grow the top line across all our key programs while expanding gross margins, offsetting the impacts of ALMS and the government shutdown.

On the cash side, we continue the trend of reducing free cash flow burn year over year while simultaneously investing in growth and CapEx for our NSNS constellation. Adjusted EBITDA profitability and positive free cash flow continues to be in sight, supported by higher-margin service growth. To accelerate that growth, we made very strategic and targeted acquisitions this year. These acquisitions have further diversified the business to more evenly split between civil, defense, and commercial. With the acquisition of Lantaris and strong momentum across national security, civil, and commercial markets, Intuitive Machines, Inc. has entered 2026 as a more competitive and diversified space infrastructure company with size and scale.

We believe this positions us to deliver record revenue, achieve positive adjusted EBITDA, and continue scaling our role in the emerging space economy. With that, operator, we are now ready for questions.

Operator: Thank you. And a quick reminder before we start the Q&A, please limit yourself to one question only. Use your keypad to raise your hand. And if you would like to withdraw your question or your question has been answered, please press 1 again. We will now open for questions. Our first question comes from Josh Sullivan from JonesTrading. Please go ahead.

Josh Sullivan: Hey, good morning. I just wanted to key in on the Lantaris integration. Where are you ahead of schedule? Where are the hurdles, and what has been the customer response?

Stephen Altemus: The integration of Lantaris with Intuitive Machines, Inc. is going very well, Josh. The customers are all excited about the opportunities that the business combination creates. We are working on a transition service agreement with Vantor, the parent, to carve out things like the IT, the accounting system, the payroll system, and make sure that those systems are fully up and running so that the business can stand alone and be merged with Intuitive Machines, Inc. All that is going well ahead of schedule. There was a plan for a nine-month period of time for that transition to occur, and, as I said, we are well ahead of schedule.

We are really excited about the combination and what the future holds for us.

Josh Sullivan: Great. Thank you for the time. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Suji DeSilva from ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Suji DeSilva: Good morning. You talked about national security growing in the mix and trying to make it sort of a third, third, a third across the company. Can you talk about the key programs, if you have won them or if you have in the pipeline, to help increase the national security in the mix?

Stephen Altemus: We talked about the Space Development Agency's Tracking Layer Tranche 1, 2, and 3. Tranche 3 is the latest award with L3Harris for 18 satellites. We just announced that here recently, and there is a potential to upsize those satellites. In addition, we have proposals in for Golden Dome to build 300 series satellites for those programs. In addition, we have another orbital transfer vehicle development undergoing. We have been through Phase 1 and Phase 2, and we are expecting award or advancement to Phase 3. We have been through critical design review, and now we are headed to the next phase to full development of that transfer vehicle.

We are very excited about the potential here in national security space and some of the developments we are doing and the proposals we have in the mix.

Suji DeSilva: Thanks, Steve. And then on calendar 2026, your revenue guidance there—talk about the linearity perhaps, Pete, first half versus second half, given you have backlog visibility. And what would drive potential 2026 upside in your guide? And just maybe you can touch on LTV and where they are in the program selection process.

Peter McGrath: I will start the last one. Our understanding is they are ready to make an award decision on LTV. It is just timing. We are waiting to hear when they actually make that award. In terms of the revenue guidance, I would say it is pretty level throughout the year. Just note that when we talk about integrating Lantaris into our financials, the acquisition was closed on January 13, so we lose about half a month of January in revenue from them. You will have that one anomaly probably in January, but beyond that you will see a pretty steady state through the year.

Stephen Altemus: And in terms of upside, Suji, against the guidance there is potential, as the Artemis program reformulation occurs. You have seen the Administrator call for acceleration of some of the Artemis missions. Part of our Near Space Network contract—if they want to restructure that and accelerate that—there might be some upside this year associated with acceleration to support the near-term Artemis missions.

Suji DeSilva: Okay. Thanks. Congrats on the progress.

Stephen Altemus: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Andres Sheppard from Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.

Andres Sheppard: Hey, everyone. Thanks for taking our questions and congratulations on a great quarter and on the acquisition. I will limit myself to one question just to be respectful of my peers. I will maybe ask a two-part question, if I may. Steve, you touched on this in your prepared remarks a little bit. Maybe for those that are less familiar with Lantaris, at a high level, what are the things that Intuitive Machines, Inc. can do now that maybe it could not do previously? And the second part of the question coming back to the LTV: it looks like we are awaiting an imminent decision. Do we have a sense of how that decision might be determined?

In other words, are we expecting perhaps two award winners, or a primary and backup? Just a little more color there on the latest. Thank you.

Stephen Altemus: Andres, good morning. Concerning the LTV in particular, Pete mentioned that briefly. I think the Artemis II mission and the reformulation of Artemis III, IV, V, and VI was the priority for the agency, and now you will see—we expect you will see—follow-on procurements at the next level coming out here shortly. We have been waiting. As you know, we believe the decision has been made. There was an opportunity; the bid asked for one and a half awards, which means one primary award and a half of an award to have a hot backup contract, if you will. We will wait and see.

There is a potential—the agency likes to have competition—so there is a potential there will be two full awards. We will just have to wait and see. But we feel it is imminent. That is all the words we are getting at this point. We will be standing by and waiting for the good news. Now for the other question—what can I do now with Lantaris? It is very exciting. We think about the series of satellite buses, the production line, the capabilities that company has, the high reliability that they have with their satellites in orbit. We take that capability and we add it to our data relay constellation.

Providing satellites in and around the moon gives us also an opportunity to repackage the Power and Propulsion Element and offer that in different markets, whether it is a comm node around the moon, a data center kind of construct, or nuclear propulsion. There are a lot of different things that can be done—versatility—by putting the innovation that Intuitive Machines, Inc. brings to all the markets with that reliable, production, high-quality satellites. We are very excited to get moving on the growth initiatives across commercial, civil, and national security space.

Peter McGrath: I will add we have already submitted two proposals post closing that we probably would not have submitted if we had not had a combined company.

Andres Sheppard: I see. Wonderful. Excellent. Well, thank you, Steve. Thank you, Pete. Congrats again on the quarter. We will pass it on.

Stephen Altemus: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Austin Moeller from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Austin Moeller: Hi. Good morning. I was just wondering if you could talk about some of the operational changes that have been made at Lantaris to make the business better positioned to perform on firm fixed-price contracts, given the possibility of cost overruns during production depending on what kind of bus it is?

Stephen Altemus: Morning, Austin. Chris Johnson, the President of Lantaris, has done a fantastic job streamlining the business, making it efficient, eliminating terms and conditions in some older contracts that were onerous for the business. They have streamlined production. They have invested in the 300 series, and we have seen that produce programs in national security space. They bid in the appropriate margins and have the right-sized workforce and the right-sized facility complement. I am very proud of the work they have done, and it was an opportunity for Intuitive Machines, Inc. to come in and acquire the business when it was on its feet, strong, and producing. The future is very bright for us as a combined business.

Austin Moeller: Great. Thanks for the color.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Edison Yu from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Edison Yu: Hey, thank you for taking our question. There has been a lot of talk about data centers in space. You just talked a lot about connectivity on the moon, Mars, solar system. How do you think about this type of architecture in terms of what it looks like, and are there certain technical capabilities that Lantaris brings that you can perhaps highlight? Thank you.

Stephen Altemus: Good morning, Edison. I think there is a lot of difference of opinion on where the actual customer base will be for on-orbit data centers and what the architecture for on-orbit data centers will be. We are studying that very carefully right now. I think what Lantaris brings to the table is this Power and Propulsion Element—the most powerful power-generating spacecraft ever built—that has the ability to be a node in a data center. If you think about data centers in particular, there is the storage element, the transmission element, and the edge computing element or the high-speed computing.

I think edge computing in space and doing decision-making in space is the key to the future of data centers, as opposed to replacing terrestrial-based data centers. I am skeptical about large, extremely large proliferated constellations in low Earth orbit. They have their challenges, both in power generation and in thermal management. Thinking about it with a set of large and small nodes together, maybe up in the GEO belt, is probably a better architecture, and that is where we are aiming at this point.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Jonathan Siegmann from Stifel. Please go ahead.

Jonathan Siegmann: Good morning, Steve, Pete, and Steve. Thanks so much for taking my question, and congratulations on closing the acquisition in a busy couple of months. One more question on LTV. I thought the Artemis restructuring was all positive for your markets, but the actual acceleration of Artemis V, which I understood is the mission that the LTV was supposed to be launched on, and the delay in the award—can you talk about whether there is enough time to complete it when it is awarded? Or is this something that is going to change the structure or the exact mission? Thank you.

Stephen Altemus: We expected award in the November timeframe, and so there are several months' delay in the award. In our construct, what we proposed was a delivery on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy with a lander. It is called Supernova. It is our heavy cargo lander, derived from our Nova-C lander, which has been to the South Pole twice. We are in charge of our own destiny flying on Falcon Heavy—non-related to Artemis directly. We are not tied to the sequence of events for Artemis V. We are flying independently per our architecture, and that gives us an edge to move that around and be in more control of the schedule. I do not see any significant delays to what we proposed.

Jonathan Siegmann: Fantastic. And I will just slip in another one that we got that I did not have a great answer for. We have seen some second thinking about the transport layer by the SDA and relying on SpaceX constellation. Our understanding is the Tracking Layer, however, is completely independent of that. I was hoping you could confirm that thought and explain a little bit about why the Tracking Layer that you participate on is not really in the threat of being outsourced to an existing constellation. Thank you again.

Stephen Altemus: You are correct in that the Tracking Layer is not affected here by this thinking, and all indications from the customer are that it is going to continue and continue to grow and be replenished as we move forward. I do not have any insight into those discussions internally to the government or with SpaceX, so I cannot comment on that in particular.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Michael Leshaw from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Michael Leshaw: Hey, good morning. I wanted to ask on the space superiority executive order that was signed in December, and the strong support there for establishing a lunar presence. Did that pull forward any of your longer-term growth initiatives? Obviously, there could be some near-term challenges with the government shutdown, but does the administration's support for a lunar presence accelerate any initiatives or shift your focus at all? Thanks.

Stephen Altemus: We are working directly with NASA to look at ways to move efforts forward faster. The agency is coming out with some streamlined acquisition guidelines to be able to let procurements out faster and is asking for commercial companies to figure out ways to bring investment to the table, to add to the federal dollar, to speed up development activities to accelerate our presence in space and accelerate astronauts' boots on the moon. Our efforts are specifically focused on putting in the necessary infrastructure in and around the moon to enable sustained presence at the moon.

The executive order that was signed is complementary to our work; our business is complementary to that executive order, and we are aiming to support it as best we can.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Ronald Epstein from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Smith Styro: Hi. Good morning. This is Smith Styro on for Ron today. I just wanted to ask about how you see the competitive landscape evolving given the reformulation of Artemis, increased interest from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and some other players. Is it more challenging? Do you see opportunities for extended applications? Any color you can give around that.

Stephen Altemus: From what I understand about NASA's plans for the lunar economy and space exploration, the Administrator has called for a higher cadence of missions to fly more equipment to the moon to learn about sustained presence on the moon. There will be more rovers, more landers, more satellites in and around the moon as a result of this push for sustained presence on the moon. I think that is excellent news for Intuitive Machines, Inc. The vendor pool from CLPS 1 will persist to CLPS 2.0.

All the authorization and appropriations language that we have seen includes the follow-on CLPS, and we have heard from the Administrator that he would like to see a launch a month to the moon in the future. Calling for that kind of cadence of missions and repetitiveness really does improve reliability in our systems and allows us to grow a more sustainable business. We are very excited about it.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Griffin Boss from B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead.

Griffin Boss: Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I want to dig a little bit deeper into what you just mentioned there, Steve, on CLPS 2.0. I know we are patiently awaiting LTV and other contracts like CT-4 or GX, others, but CLPS 2.0 is a new one on the horizon. Obviously, there was an RFI out earlier this year. I am sure Intuitive responded to that. Do you have any insight where that stands or, more definitively, what the scale and scope could be, acknowledging that CLPS 1.0, I think, was about $2.5 billion?

Do you have any insight as to if that scale for CLPS 2.0 will increase given the increased cadence of lunar landing that the Administrator has talked about?

Stephen Altemus: I do expect CLPS 2.0 to be larger than CLPS 1. We have introduced ideas in our RFI response to the agency and some white papers—unsolicited—to increase the cadence of missions, and we are seeing that is what is being called for. We have to think through how to increase production to meet that cadence of missions. We have requested things like block buys where you can buy several missions at a single time, and that would increase production rates and increase supply chain throughput.

We have also introduced the concept of heavier cargo because we will be bringing bigger and larger elements to the surface, much like LTV, and so the call for heavier cargo is necessary, and we put that input in also. Larger vehicles. What else is interesting is the move from the Science Mission Directorate—CLPS 1.0 was part of the Science Mission Directorate. We have seen that move over to the Exploration Mission Directorate, and so you will see more engineered systems, surface infrastructure systems being called for in CLPS 2.0. The exact dollar amount—I am not certain what that will be as the agency figures out how it is going to rejigger their budget.

But it is all positive from what I am hearing.

Griffin Boss: That is great color. Thank you, Steve. Appreciate you taking the question.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Van Rhee from Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead.

Daniel (for Jeffrey Van Rhee): Good morning. This is Daniel on for Jeff. Just on the organic growth profile, I know you said previously Lantaris had been running around $630 million in revenue. I do not know if you have an updated number for full year 2025, but on a combined basis, it looks like maybe it is around teens organic growth for 2026. Maybe just walk in our expectations on organic growth.

Peter McGrath: By the way, we have not provided year end yet. We are closing out our performance here, and we should have them out near term. That will give you the 2024–2025 year-end combined. In terms of growth, when we look at our guidance, we are looking at it as a combined company now. There is a lot more integrated capability that we are bringing forward, so it is a little harder to parse it out. Arguably, of it, you are looking at about 66% of the revenue coming out of Lantaris and the other 33% coming out of us. That is a rough magnitude kind of look.

We will get more granularity after you see the pro formas and as we move into visibility through the quarters.

Operator: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Greg Pendy from Clear Street. Please go ahead.

Greg Pendy: Hey, thanks for taking my question. Just a quick one here. I think you had addressed the low-hanging fruit on NSNS given bandwidth constraints at Deep Space Network for the initial launch and also how commercial has only grown. But could you touch on the defense side? Hearing a lot how the moon is the ultimate high ground, and how that demand for NSNS may have changed from where it was a year ago, given what other countries might be doing with their ambitions on the moon. Thanks.

Stephen Altemus: As far as international business goes, you heard us announce a strategic partnership with the Italian companies, Leonardo and Telespazio. They have an ESA-funded program called Moonlight to put communications satellites and some navigation satellites around the moon for European business. We struck a partnership to tie our networks together so the networks are larger. We are also working initiatives with JAXA Japan to do a similar thing, to create a standard and to create coverage in a way that supports the Japanese market, the European market, and the U.S. market combined.

That is very exciting for us, and we are clearly seen as a leader here, setting the tone for how these networks will evolve and be interconnected and interoperable. On the national security side, space domain awareness is of critical importance, and having assets in and around the moon and lunar space is very important for understanding what the traffic model is around the moon and where things are moving. There has been expressed interest in using our network for those reasons also.

Operator: That is very helpful. Thanks a lot. Okay, and that concludes the Q&A portion of this call. I will now turn it back over to Stephen Altemus for any closing remarks.

Stephen Altemus: Thank you for your questions today, everyone. You heard our strategy, and at its core, it is about building a business with greater durability and higher value over time. We are executing on our strategy and moving from single mission-based operations towards long-duration infrastructure services. That is the path we are on, and that is how we are thinking about the company's future. The future is bright. Thank you very much today. You will be hearing more from us in the future.

Operator: The meeting has now concluded. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect.

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