Intuitive Machines Wins 2 NASA Contracts, Neither of Which Matters Much

With its shares up 240% over the past 52 weeks, Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR) has gone from a little-known space stock to one of the hottest stocks on the planet (or maybe off-planet).

Enthusiasm surrounding the upcoming SpaceX initial public offering (IPO) is certainly one factor lifting Intuitive stock lately. It doesn't hurt that Intuitive is doing pretty well in its own right. Its most recent earnings report showed positive adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), revenue that nearly tripled year over year, and a huge book-to-bill ratio of 2.3 -- promising more strong revenue growth ahead.

What's more, no sooner had earnings come out than Intuitive announced two more contract wins.

Image source: Getty Images.

Two contracts for Intuitive Machines

Valued at $15.5 million and $4.5 million, respectively, both payable over three years of work, Intuitive Machines' new contracts will see it serve as prime contractor operating both NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera ("LROC") aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the ShadowCam camera aboard the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter.

Intuitive Machines will use data generated by the two camera systems "to provide orbital and surface navigation services across government and commercial exploration," integrating millions of existing and new images to create high-resolution maps of the lunar surface.

Unfortunately for the company's shareholders, while important for the future of exploration and infrastructure-building on the moon, neither of these contracts is going to have much impact on Intuitive Machines' share price.

What's important for Intuitive Machines stock

When you get right down to it, only two things really matter for the stock now. The first is the Near Space Network (NSN) contract that Intuitive Machines won from NASA in late 2024, which tasked the company with deploying lunar relay satellites and providing communication and navigation services between Earth and the moon.

Valued at $4.8 billion, this contract will bring in far more money over the next 10 years than Intuitive Machines has ever generated -- total. What's more, much of this will be regularly repeating revenue from managing communications traffic between Earth and the moon after NSN is built. So if NSN lasts more than 10 years and Intuitive continues providing communications services to NASA, the contract could be worth even more -- and certainly more than a couple of contracts worth $20 million total.

The other project Intuitive Machines is working on is NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, through which the company is paid to send Nova-C and Nova-D landers to deliver cargo to the moon. To date, Intuitive Machines has won five such contracts and executed two of them, each by landing a Nova-C on the moon. Problem is, neither Nova-C lander landed entirely upright; both toppled over after landing, preventing full deployments of their payloads.

Still, CLPS is the contract that made Intuitive Machines famous in the first place, when, in 2024, it became the first American company to land a spacecraft on the moon. Even achieving only partial success on its landings is more than most space companies have accomplished, giving NASA reason to be patient with the company as it works out the bugs in its spacecraft.

Unlike space, however, patience isn't infinite. Intuitive Machines really needs an unqualified win. A 100% successful landing could be just the thing to send this stock to the moon.

Rich Smith has positions in Intuitive Machines. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Intuitive Machines. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.