- The Space Investor
- Posts
- 🚀 IM-1 Mission Makes History
🚀 IM-1 Mission Makes History
🚀 IM-1 Mission Makes History
The Space Scoop
Week Ended 02.23.2024
Happy Friday! And what a historic week! Humans have landed on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. Lets dive in.
Market Max-Q
Top Stories
1) Intuitive Machines ($LUNR) made lunar landing history this week.
At 6:23pm EST on Thursday, Intuitive Machines became the first commercial company to land on the Moon and the first American to do so in the 21st century / since 1972.
“We can confirm, without a doubt, that our equipment is on the surface of the Moon, and we are transmitting,” IM-1 flight director and CTO Tim Crain said on the company’s livestream.
Both citizens and investors await to hear and see if the camera on Nova-C lander named EagleCam was able to capture any photos.
On Wall Street, LUNR shares have had a wild four weeks. Trading from an all-time low of $2.09 per share set on January 4th to $9.59 close on Friday, February 23rd, shares rallied +360%.
In what has been a buy the hype-type run, investors have made out very, very well. Have LUNR shares come too far too fast? Time will tell!
“We’ve never witnessed a publicly traded company go through a moon landing attempt. So this is new, not just for investors, but for us analysts as well,” Cantor Fitzgerald’s Andres Sheppard told CNBC.
2) Rocket Lab ($RKLB) successfully assisted in returning Varda's spacecraft capsule back to Earth.
On Wednesday afternoon at 4:40pm ET, Varda's W-1 capsule touched down in the Utah desert bringing back pharmaceuticals made in space. Varda then shipped the vials of the drug ritonavir made during the mission in space to partner Improved Pharma for analysis.
Rocket Lab's successful demonstration its end-to-end space systems solutions following its design, manufacture and operation of Varda's spacecraft, which included a full suite of subsystems and components built in-house.
Rocket Lab called the landing a “phenomenal feat and impressive display of teamwork.”
Varda will kick off their W-2 mission this coming summer.
In Other News
Blue Origin Emerges As Likely ULA Buyer
Rumors have been swirling lately, but this week Ars Technica sources reported Jeff Bezos' (who sold $8.5B in $AMZN stock in the last 9 days) Blue Origin has emerged as the sole finalist to buy United Launch Alliance (the joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Regardless, we will have to wait as the sale is not official, nothing has been formally announced and both companies declined to comment.
Gilmour Space Raises AU$55M Series D Round
(Company)
The Australian launch startup will utilize the capital to support its small launch vehicle manufacturing, testing and initial launch of sovereign-made rockets and satellites to orbit. The round was led by Queensland Investment Corporation, with additional participation from Blackbird, Main Sequence, HostPlus and HESTA the Australian pension fund.
Northwood Space Raises $6.3M Seed Round
(CNBC)
The startup founded by former Disney Channel star and singer Bridgit Mendler, plans to build satellite ground stations that are designed with mass production and customer flexibility first in mind. “The vision is a data highway between Earth and space.” The round was led by Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Also Capital, Long Journey Ventures, Box Group and Humba Ventures.
Hadran Raises $117M Series B Round
The industrial automation startup targeting high-precision CNC machining will use the capital to double their automation and software team, break ground on a new factory by Q3 and partner with aerospace primes on dedicated factories. The round, which was a mix of debt and equity included new participation from RTX Ventures. Construct Capital, WCM, Bracket Capital, Shrug Capital, Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, S&A, Silent Ventures, Cubit Capital, Caffeinated, Tru Arrow Partners and other existing investors also participated.
Nuview Acquires Astraea
Nuview, the startup focused on mapping the world from space using lidar, announced an acquisition of the analytics platform Astraea. Nuview was founded in January 2022 and has raised $15M to date. The terms of the deal were not disclosed and in a recent interview, Nuview CEO did not comment on how many Astraea’s employee’s would be joining the company as a result of the acquisition.
Connected Announces $2M Pre-Seed Round
The Portuguese-based hosted payload connectivity network startup hopes to show it could leverage empty space aboard smallsats to provide a network that connects irrigation controllers and other off-the-grid monitoring and tracking devices. The round was led by FundBox, Shilling VC, and Iberis Capital, with participation from Amena Ventures, Octopus Ventures and angel Keith Willey.
Image of the Week
Intuitive Machines IM-1 Mission: Nova-C lander Odysseus making its way to the lunar surface.
(Source)
Links
• Rocket Lab ($RKLB) Successfully Launches Mission Designed for Astroscale • Rocket Lab ($RKLB) Schedules Launch Date for 45th Electron Mission• Spire ($SPIR) Awarded €8.4M by the EMSA for Provision of SAT-AIS Data Services• Hughes ($SATS) Selected To Provide Modems and Multi-Orbit Auto-PACE Solution in Support of SES Space & Defense’s US Air Force DEUCSI Program• Rocket Lab ($RKLB) To Launch NRO Mission From Launch Complex 2 in Wallops, VA• AST SpaceMobile’s ($ASTS) CEO Appointed Commissioner to the ITU / UNESCO Broadband Commission• Blue Origin Debuts New Glenn on Launch Pad• Sidus ($SIDU) Successfully Completes Contract with Undisclosed European Customer
Opinion
• Are Investors Prepared for Nuclear War in Space?• The Race To Back Up Vulnerable GPS• How Elon Musk’s SpaceX Was Boosted in Indonesia by a Chinese Rocket Failure• Musk’s SpaceX Forges Tighter Links With US Spy and Military Agencies• Virgin Galactic ($SPCE): A Risk-Bound Yet to Mature Business• Planet ($PL): At the Heart of the Emerging New Space Boom
Earnings Calendar
• $RKLB: Feb 27 - After Market Close• $SPCE: Feb 27 - After Market Close• $MDA: Feb 28 - Before Market Open• $BKSY: Feb 28 - Before Market Open• $GSAT: Feb 28 - Before Market Open• $SPIR: Mar 6 - After Market Close• $LLAP: Mar 26 - Before Market Open
*Company confirmed dates only.