Intuitive Machines shares closed Monday trading 6.2% higher, continuing their recent surge as the space exploration company aims to make history with the launch of its Nova-C commercial lunar lander.
With SpaceX launch partner, Intuitive Machines LUNR,
is aiming for a launch window starting at 12:57 a.m. Eastern time on February 14. Nova-C will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is expected to land on the moon on February 22.
If the IM-1 mission is successful, Nova-C will be the first U.S. commercial lunar lander to reach the lunar surface. Last month, private US space company Astrobotic Technology ended its troubled mission to place a lander on the Moon.
Related: Space exploration company Intuitive Machines gets closer to historic mission to the Moon
Shares of Intuitive Machines closed Friday’s session up 32.01%, its biggest daily percentage gain since April 26, 2023, when it rose 32.3%.
“This stock is trying to gain ground, literally,” StockTwits, a social platform for investors and traders, tweeted on Monday, highlighting Intuitive Machines’ premarket gain.
The IM-1 mission is Intuitive Machines’ first Moon landing attempt under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which is part of the Artemis program to eventually return U.S. astronauts to the Moon.
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The launch is scheduled for the monthly lunar blackout period. Nova-C will land near the Moon’s south pole, where correct lighting conditions are available for only a few days a month.
The mission will carry NASA science and technology instruments focused on plume-surface interactions, space-weather interactions and the lunar surface, radio astronomy, precision landing technologies and a communications and navigation node for future autonomous navigation technologies, according to the space agency .
Commercial Moon landings are considered important reconnaissance missions for the Artemis program. Last month, NASA said it is now targeting September 2025 for its first crewed Artemis mission around the Moon, and September 2026 for its Artemis mission that will land astronauts near the lunar south pole.
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Last month, Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, successfully landed on the Moon. However, in an image taken by SLIM’s rover, the probe was upside down on the lunar surface.
Intuitive Machines shares have fallen 49.1% over the past 52 weeks, compared to the S&P 500 index’s SPX gain of 21.4%.