Intuitive Machines LLC plans to go public through a blank-check deal valuing the space exploration company at more than $1 billion.
(Bloomberg) — Intuitive Machines LLC plans to go public through a blank-check deal valuing the space exploration company at more than $1 billion.
The firm will be listed on the Nasdaq exchange after a combination with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp., according to a statement Friday.
The boards of both companies have unanimously approved the deal, which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2023.
The move will give Intuitive Machines access to additional capital as it tries to fortify its position providing technology and services for lunar missions at the same time that NASA is plotting a return to the moon.
The Houston-based company expects to transport government and commercial payloads to the surface of the moon with its lander, called Nova-C, early next year.
NASA awarded the company and two others multimillion-dollar contracts in 2019 through the space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
The winners had been expected to fly as early as 2020, while Intuitive Machines at the time was targeting a landing in mid-2021.
One of the three original contract winners dropped out, but Intuitive Machines and the remaining award winner, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology, are still in competition to be the first CLPS provider to land on the moon — and potentially become the first commercial US company to bring a private lander to the lunar surface.
“We are all still in the very early days of this new phase of space exploration, with tremendous growth potential ahead,” Kam Ghaffarian, Intuitive Machines’ co-founder and executive chair, said in the statement.
The Intuitive Machine launch plan marks a shift from its prior target to lift off by the end of this year.
The company’s lander will ride on a Falcon 9 rocket under an agreement with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Lunar Data
Beyond lunar transportation services, Intuitive Machines says it’s also focused on “lunar data services” by building out a constellation of lunar satellites that can help with communications and navigations on the moon.
The company is also working on services in Earth orbit, such as satellite refueling and orbital debris removal, as well as other space products and services like propulsion, navigation and engineering.
Intuitive Machines projects $102 million of sales this year and $291 million in 2023.
As a public company, it will have an implied enterprise value of $815 million and pro forma equity value in excess of $1 billion, assuming no redemptions by Inflection Point shareholders, the companies said.
Inflection Point holds about $330 million of cash in trust.
Intuitive Machines’ existing equity holders are expected to own about 62% of the combined company after the transaction.
Inflection Point shares rose 1.5% at 9:40 a.m. in New York.
(Updates with stock movement in final paragraph)
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