A $4.8 billion contract has been signed to develop communication between the Moon and the Earth

At the end of September 2024, it became known that NASA had signed a contract with Intuitive Machines to develop communication between the Moon and the Earth. The GEO to Cislunar Relay Services project will relay messages from Earth satellites (located in geosynchronous orbits) to and from the Moon. News of the concluded contract caused a powerful increase in the value of shares of Intuitive Machines, reaching 77%.

NASA's contract assumes that Intuitive Machines will "deploy lunar relay satellites and provide communications and navigation services" to support NASA's Artemis project to land astronauts on the moon. Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said the company expects an initial payment of $150 million to develop communications satellites in the near future. The bulk of the contract, worth $4.8 billion, will be paid later as soon as the satellites are launched and put into operation, and NASA will begin paying Intuitive Machines directly for the provision of communication services between the GEO satellites and the moon. It is estimated that Intuitive Machines will receive the full amount of the contract in about 10 years, but the original contract was concluded for five years with the possibility of renewal.

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Intuitive Machines

Prior to the contract announcement, most analysts did not expect shares of Intuitive Machines to become profitable through 2026, as the lunar cargo launch business would have needed about $475 million in annual sales to make a profit of about $0.25 per share. However, the contract with NASA provides an additional $480 million in annual revenue, which is approximately four times the current annual revenue of Intuitive Machines ($158 million per year). However, this is a lengthy process, and it is likely that the company's revenues will grow gradually over the decade.^[1]

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