Just as the world's richest man Musk shouted, 'Unless human civilization can become an interstellar civilization, it will only perish,' American space concept stock Intuitive Machines rose more than 40% in pre-Wednesday trading with a NASA contract.
Based on this increase, the company's stock price is expected to hit a new high today since February of this year, when the company had just become the first private company in human history to complete an aircraft landing on the moon.
(Intuitive Machine Daily Chart, Source: TradingView)
"Interstellar Internet Contract" worth nearly 5 billion dollars
The reason for the latest surge in the stock prices of listed companies is a statement released by NASA on Tuesday evening local time.
This official aerospace agency in the United States announced that Intuitive Machine has been awarded the contract for the Near Space Network. As a contract with a fixed price, multiple rewards, and unlimited delivery/quantity, the service period starts from October 1st this year and lasts until September 30th, 2029, with the option to extend for five years. NASA stated that the maximum potential value of this contract is $4.82 billion.
By horizontal comparison, at the close of trading on Tuesday, the market value of Intuitive Machines was only $340 million.
It is reported that the main content of this contract is to provide interstellar data transmission relay and navigation services, in simple terms, to ensure that NASA spacecraft can have safe, reliable, and economical network connections during their journey from Earth to the Moon.
The listed company announced that after obtaining the contract from NASA, the company will begin deploying lunar relay satellites to provide communication and navigation services between the Earth and the Moon. This is also part of NASA's Artemis moon landing program, aimed at establishing a long-term lunar base.
Commercial vision for space business
This contract also marks the debut of Intuition Machine's interstellar satellite Internet business. As major mainstream space agencies accelerate their vision of establishing a "permanent lunar base," related listed companies are expected to receive a "pulse like" positive stimulus.
Intuitive Machine explains that the company currently has three main pillars of business centered around the commercialization opportunities of the moon.
Firstly, the development and delivery of the lunar lander, the carrier of interstellar logistics. On February 22nd of this year, the Nova-C class "Odysseus" lander of Intuitive Machine successfully landed on the moon. Although the lander fell on the moon during the landing process, causing the mission to end prematurely, this is still the first successful moon landing by the United States since 1972.
At present, the company expects to conduct two lander launch missions in the fourth quarter of this year and early next year.
In addition to logistics business, the latest contract has also opened up "interstellar telecommunications" and "interstellar navigation" businesses. Intuitive machines indicate that the company will establish a satellite network capable of transmitting 4K resolution videos.
The company stated that the final pillar is the development and operation of lunar infrastructure, including providing logistics and mapping solutions.