SpaceX's IPO Is Imminent. Here Is One Space Stock Soaring as a Result.

Key Points

News of SpaceX's IPO surfaced late last month, and space stocks have rallied since then.

Intuitive Machines is a leading space infrastructure company with considerable experience and a NASA partnership.

It's a speculative play as its finances are somewhat shaky.

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Late last month, news of SpaceX filing to go public caused a number of space stocks to jump.

Elon Musk's rocket company is perhaps the single most hotly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) in the world right now, and it could be valued at as much as $1.75 trillion.

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You and I can't buy shares in it yet, at least not directly.

However, it has been driving up other space stocks ever since news of its IPO surfaced last month. And one of the most interesting companies in the space industry is Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR), which is up 32.4% over the past month.

So, is Intuitive Machines worth a look for your portfolio? In short, yes, but for a small, speculative position.

Let's get into it.

Moonage daydreams

Intuitive Machines calls itself a space infrastructure company. Its main focuses are satellites and lunar landers. Since it was founded in 2013, Intuitive Machines has launched over 300 spacecraft. It has 100 satellites in orbit today, and it has 177 hours of lunar surface operations to its name.

And the company was awarded a $180.4 million contract to deliver NASA payloads to the moon via its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative in service to the Artemis program.

The end goal of the Artemis program is to build a permanent base on the moon. That's going to require a lot of materials to be sent up there with the astronauts. And Intuitive Machine's large cargo class lunar lander, the Nova-D, appears to be NASA's choice early on in the Artemis program.

Intuitive Machines is also in the running for the next lunar rover, which it has dubbed the RACER or Reusable Autonomous Crewed Exploration Rover.

That all sounds great, but what's the catch if this is only fit for a small speculative bet?

Space oddity

Well, as a young company, Intuitive Machines is still dependent on investment and grants from organizations like NASA to a high degree. It generated $207.13 million in 2025, which was down 9.15% from 2024. However, 2024's revenue was $228 million, almost triple the $79.5 million in 2023.

It's also not profitable. Its net margin for 2025 is -51.58%, but that's a significant improvement from the -152.16% net margin it had in 2024.

On the other hand, the company has plenty of cash to fund its growth. It has $582.6 million in cash and cash equivalents (more than double the $207.6 million it had at the end of 2024) to total liabilities of $553.4 million. Intuitive Machine's net losses also shrank from $346.9 million in 2024 to $106.8 million in 2025.

So, we have a company with expertise in sending cargo to space, but it has some shaky financials. Still, its financial position is much stronger than many other space companies, and it has significant contracts with NASA. That makes it worth a look for a speculative space play by my math.

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James Hires has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Intuitive Machines. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.