Intuitive Machines is a Houston-based company just up the road from NASA's Johnson Space Center, or JSC. It was founded in 2013 by a trio of space enthusiasts:
- The current CEO, Steve Atlemus, who formerly served as the deputy director of JSC
- Kamal Ghaffarian, the current chair of the board, who has experience across legacy aerospace companies
- Tim Crain, the company's chief technology officer, who previously worked as a lead engineer at JSC
The company reached a massive milestone in 2021 when NASA selected the company as a provider in its Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, program.
It's one of several private-sector companies that have been tasked by the space agency to get robotic landers to the moon as NASA works on separate plans to return its astronauts.
The contract for this mission was originally worth under $80 million. But it was later renegotiated, and — all told — Intuitive Machines could receive up to $118 million from NASA for this mission.
The company also went public last year, via a reverse merger. Its stock has been on a tear recently amid its successes in space, surging up about 80% over the past five days as of Thursday afternoon.