by Get ready to join the next generation! After Intuitive Machines’ (LUNR) successful moon landing in February, the space exploration company is partnering with NASA along with Boeing (BA) and Northrop Grumman (NOC) to develop a new Lunar Land Vehicle (LTV).
Intuitive Machines President and CEO Steve Altmus sits down with Yahoo Finance’s Akiko Fujita at the 2024 Milken Conference to talk about some of the regulatory risks of expanding into commercial space projects, as well as the excitement surrounding some of the latest plans of the company and lunar crafts.
“Well, we designed and developed a mission to the Moon at a price point of about $118 million and we did it within four years. We completely disrupted the industry in terms of the economics of flying to the Moon.” Altmus says of Intuitive Machines’ work with NASA. “Then you look at how we executed the mission through all the challenges and troubles as we went to the Moon more than 300,000 miles out there. And we solved every problem along the way.”
Find more of Yahoo Finance’s coverage of the Milken Institute Global Conference 2024.
This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
Video transcript
I’m here at the Beverly Hilton in LA on the ground for the Milk Institute World Congress. We’re talking about space exploration and the new space economy. machine. Good to talk to you today. Very timely conversation here, because of the announcement today or what we are looking at today. Potentially Boeing sending their first cap with crew to the international space station. They are one of your partners in the coming LTV. But I’m curious how you look at this in the context of upsides like upstarts like yourself. to get Boeing here. Yeah, I’d say it’s been a journey for both of us, right? We started our business in the Boeing Space Exploration Building, believe it or not, and I have a good relationship with them, and I’m really proud. Let me just say Ar first of all, due to Boeing’s persistence on the Starliner, it was a big challenge for them to get their spacecraft ready and safe for our astronauts and I think they are ready to go. We’re very happy about all of that, however, although they have faced very difficult technical challenges, what is the future of that program? I’m not sure how well it will continue over time and what kind of investment it will take. It speaks to a broader question in the industry about the role of the traditional prime contractor or you know the strategic aerospace company, in the context of the LTV, which stated you just, you know, in two of the machines, as a smaller company, that sits on top of that team with the likes of Boeing and Northrop Grumman, Michelin and BL as our subcontractor. So I think the NASA environment and the way they’re doing non-traditional procurement to buy goods and services for them. the Artemis program fundamentally changed the landscape and disrupted strategic aerospace. When you say you are not sure about the program without specifically defining bones. to be a little more nimble to move aggressively against SpaceX and other upstarts. I think a lot of this is about the future of the CIS lunar economy or the Artemis campaign or a series of programs where you have to be able to. to work in a fixed price contracting environment. You have to be able to stand there and deliver that risk. And the government wants us as commercial companies to share the risk. And sometimes with the larger strategic aerospace companies. their shareholders are not comfortable with that risk situation when a smaller, more nimble company can work around those financial risks and be successful. , to be the Series one aerospace companies of the future.And I think that machines are intuitive. players into the moment that is right so first because the system integrator would be a large strategic aerospace company. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, north of it in this case because of the nuances of the supply itself. Intuitive machines brings the most value to be that systems integrator.And, as I was talking to you about earlier, there is the ability to deliver, not only LTV on a cargo class lander to design and build LTV and then operate it on the surface.Both commercial and for NASA. All those tuna services and machines give as a kind company.It was extremely casual for several months in you. A lander was launched on the surface of the moon, the first commercial company to do so. little right, and so you were able to complete the mission at all, as I understand that you were. speaking to the challenges of being able to successfully complete a mission on the move. I will tell you something. It was a great achievement. We are very proud of that achievement, and I declared that I succeeded as d We flew the mission well. We designed and developed a mission to the moon at a price point. That was about $118 million and he did it in about four years. We’ve completely disrupted the industry in terms of the economics of flying to the moon. That’s success. to see how we perform at the mission through all the challenges and troubles of going out to the moon more than 300,000 miles out there, and we solved every problem along the way. We landed without any altimeters laser. We talked about that and still landed softly.Now we tipped over.But we returned NASA all the data they asked for.And we went about 164 hours long on the surface of the moon, and our 144 hour requirement. I do not know that aerospace is difficult. It is difficult to fly missions in space. So naturally we have a process we call hot wash where we took 30 days to analyze all aspects of the mission. fine what happened? and around the moon without GPS and landing precisely and to avoid danger. There are no slopes more than 10 degrees and no rocks bigger than a bowling ball. times with accuracy, and the South Pole will be attached. profitability looks like this? relay satellites, navigation. They give position navigation and timing to heavier cargo, heavier and the heavier cargo element. The Nova D Class Lander will deliver our lunar terrain vehicle, the first piece of infrastructure for the Artemis mission that will carry astronauts around the surface in extreme mobility situations. So as a company, our vision is to deliver space systems to the surface with our family of Landers to command and control and navigate around the moon to enable surface operations. , I believe that two of the machines are the only company that got the three pieces, or at least two of the three, with the last chess piece in its near space network contract with NASA to provide commercial communications from the moon around the moon. and back to the World. So we look forward to hearing that award in late May or early June, and that would give us all full confidence in the three pieces. infrastructure as a service to NASA, and they can bring up the astronauts and the astronaut systems, and we’ll provide the power, the data, the communications, the navigation and willing to do that on the whole stack there. it was exciting follow the progress.Steve Al is with intuitive machines.Good to talk to you Thank you for that. Thank you very much.
