Why Intuitive Machines Stock Soared Today

Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR) stock rocketed higher in Monday's trading. The company's share price closed out the daily session up 8.3%, and had been up as much as 10.2% earlier in the day's trading. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) closed out the day up 0.7%, and the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) ended the session up 1%.

Intuitive Machines saw big valuation gains today after it was announced that lunar data center technologies from Lonestar Data had been successfully tested and integrated into its Athena lander for the upcoming IM-2 lunar mission. With today's gains, Intuitive Machines stock is now up roughly 297% over the last year.

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Intuitive Machines stock surges on lunar mission news

Lonestar Data published a press release this morning, announcing that the data center that it's built to operate on the moon had been embedded in Intuitive Machines' Athena lunar lander and delivered to Cape Canaveral, Florida, ahead of a fast-approaching lunar mission.

The IM-2 lunar mission is scheduled to kick on or after Feb. 26, depending on weather conditions, and will see the Athena lunar lander from Intuitive Machines transported to the moon by a SpaceX rocket. The Athena lander has been fitted with Lonestar Data's Freedom lunar data center. If successfully established, it will become the first data center operating outside the Earth's orbit. Investors were excited about the news, and they responded by bidding up Intuitive Machines' share price today.

What comes next for Intuitive Machines?

Intuitive Machines stock has been on an incredible hot streak. Following today's gains, the company now has a market capitalization of roughly $1.85 billion and is valued at approximately 5.1 times this year's expected sales.

LUNR PS Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

While the company has a speculative, growth-dependent valuation, it's already recording meaningful revenue -- and sales have been ramping up quickly. In the third quarter, the company announced that sales had increased 359% year over year to reach $58.5 million, and that it had been awarded a $116.9 million contract through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

In addition to Lonestar's data center, Intuitive Machines will also be transporting Nokia's cellular network technology to the moon in the upcoming IM-2 lunar mission. The upcoming event could wind up being a major performance driver for Intuitive Machines, and momentum in the space industry suggests that more big things could be in store for the company this year.

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Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.