Intuitive Machines to go public on Nasdaq with acquisition company

Sept. 16 (UPI) -- The space exploration company Intuitive Machines said Friday it will go public through a merger with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. in a deal valued at about $1 billion.

The special purpose acquisition company merger is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023. And will be listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LUNR.

Intuitive Machines is a leading participant in NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The company won contracts for three missions to date.

The company said that in early 2023, an Intuitive Machines lunar lander on a SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket is expected to transport government and commercial payloads to the surface of the Moon. It would mark the United States' first return to the Moon since its Apollo missions in 1972.

"Intuitive Machines is excited to play a critical role in providing technologies and services to establish long-term lunar infrastructure and commerce," Intuitive Machines co-founder Kam Ghaffarian said.

"What's different this time is that the U.S. government has astutely chosen to utilize partnerships with the private sector to accomplish its goals more quickly and more cost-effectively," Ghaffarian said.

The company said that $55 million in committed capital and a $50 million equity facility were secured for the transaction. Intuitive Machines said it expects to become profitable over the next 2 to 3 years.

"The objective is to create a thriving commercial ecosystem for space for the benefit of civilization," Ghaffarian said. "This has created a massive secular growth opportunity for space as an industry.

"We have already seen companies such as SpaceX seize this moment and achieve fantastic results, and we are all still in the very early days of this new phase of space exploration, with tremendous growth potential ahead."