Intuitive Machines (LUNR) Earnings Transcript

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DATE
Thursday, March 19, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET
CALL PARTICIPANTS
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President and Chief Executive Officer — Stephen Altemus
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Chief Financial Officer — Peter McGrath
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Full Conference Call Transcript
Stephen Altemus, and Chief Financial Officer, Peter McGrath, are leading the call today. Before we begin, please note that some of the information discussed during today's call will consist of forward-looking statements, setting forth our current expectations with respect to the future of our business, the economy, and other events. The company's actual results could differ materially from those indicated in any forward-looking statements due to many factors. These factors are described under forward-looking statements in the company's earnings press release and the company's most recent 10-Ks and 10-Qs filed with the SEC. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.
We also expect to discuss certain financial measures and information that are non-GAAP measures as defined in the applicable SEC rules and regulations. Reconciliations to the company's GAAP measures are included in the earnings release filed on Form 8-Ks. Finally, we posted an earnings call presentation to our website which provides additional context on our operational and financial performance. You can find this presentation on our investor relations page at intuitivemachines.com/investors. I will now turn the call over to Stephen Altemus.
Stephen Altemus: Good morning, everyone. 2025 was a transformational year for Intuitive Machines, Inc. We began with a focus on execution and growth. As we look back and reflect we completed our second lunar mission, expanded into national security space programs, closed the acquisition of Kinetics Aerospace, and announced the acquisition of Lantaris Space Systems. Looking forward, these acquisitions significantly expand our scale, addressable market, and growth opportunities. As a result, we expect 2026 revenue to approach $1 billion, nearly a 5x increase from 2025. Our combined portfolio has a diversified revenue mix with approximately 40% commercial business, 40% civil space, and 20% national security customers, evolving towards a balanced portfolio across all three customer bases.
Today, the United States' strategic importance of the moon continues to intensify with the President's executive order to lead the world in space exploration and return Americans to the moon by 2028. To do so, NASA is currently preparing for Artemis II while reformulating Artemis III. In parallel, the agency has increased the cadence of robotic and human missions going to the moon to compete with China. Our strategy will continue to be moon-first infrastructure, and we are focused on growing the business across all space domains: LEO, GEO, cislunar, and out to Mars and beyond.
Through our early missions, we established the technical foundation of the company with a mission-driven model where revenue was tied to a concentrated customer base and mission outcomes were binary, like delivering NASA payloads to the lunar surface. These early delivery missions under CLPS established one of the first commercial pathways to the moon and we believe give us a competitive advantage to future growth in the space domain. Our mission built the operational expertise required for long-duration, persistent, infrastructure systems that will support sustained surface operations.
At the same time, Lantaris Space Systems was operating on a larger scale, more established spacecraft platform market, with its 300 series, 500 series, and 1,300 series satellite systems which operate in more mature, expansive markets with consistent and predictable revenue generation. Historically, the Lantaris model was straightforward: build reliable, cost-effective spacecraft to a customer's specifications and hand it over for operational life which should exceed 10 years. Bringing these capabilities together, both Intuitive Machines, Inc. and Lantaris, creates a fundamentally different company. Today, we are focused on taking proven production platforms and applying them to new growth markets as a prime operator. Our operating model is organized around three integrated capabilities.
They are to build, to connect, and to operate space infrastructure. Build is where we design, manufacture, and deliver spacecraft, landers, satellites, surface systems, propulsion and avionic systems, for government and commercial customers. This represents our business today. Starting later this year with IM-3 or Mission 3 and our first lunar data relay satellite, our connect capability integrates deployed assets into communications, navigation, command, control, and data relay networks that enable persistent connectivity. Our Near Space Network Services contract, which includes data services, navigation, and timing capabilities, accelerates how quickly we can reach our third capability, which is to operate. This is where we provide mission operations, hosted payload services, and other infrastructure-based offerings like the Lunar Terrain Vehicle services.
As we look at these three capabilities—build, connect, operate—each progresses the business towards higher-margin services, anchored by multibillion-dollar recurring revenue programs like LCBS, the TDRS service, Mars Telecom Network service, and Fission Surface Power. With the combined power of Intuitive Machines, Inc. and Lantaris, the company can now pursue opportunities as a prime for defense programs, proliferated network infrastructure, and other infrastructure operations with higher procurement win probabilities, driven by our scale, our technologies, and capabilities. Our current execution is grounded in the work our teams are building today for LEO, GEO, and lunar domains. In low Earth orbit, our team continues to execute under the Space Development Agency's proliferated warfighter space architecture.
Deliveries of the final 300 series satellite buses under Tranche 1 Tracking Layer are underway, with launch expected later this year. Work also continues on Tranche 2 and the recently awarded Tranche 3 Tracking Layer programs, which support proliferated constellations designed to detect and track missile launches. The 500 series platform, currently supporting high-resolution Earth observation for Vantor, formerly Maxar Intelligence, is part of a NASA-selected team for the Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer mission called EDGE. This award demonstrates how the 500 series spacecraft design can support commercial imaging, science missions, and national security applications. Moving outward to geostationary orbit, the 1,300 series spacecraft is the industry's most proven GEO communications platform.
Operating companies rely on these satellites in geostationary orbit as part of a multibillion-dollar communications market. Over the last 40 years, Lantaris has served customers as the world leader in geocommunication satellites, with over 3,000 aggregate years on orbit with 99.99% operational availability. The 1,300 series production line includes EchoStar, DISH Network, and two SiriusXM satellites. EchoStar 25 successfully launched last week. Our team is currently performing the satellite's on-orbit system checks before starting high-power direct-to-home broadcast services across North America. SiriusXM 11 is undergoing final performance and integration testing with shipment expected in the second quarter. Production of SiriusXM 12 continues in parallel.
Satellites in this class are designed to operate for more than a decade and support services such as broadband connectivity, media distribution, aviation communications, and enterprise networks on Earth. Based on the 1,300 series, and designed for NASA's Lunar Gateway Station, this first-of-a-kind Power and Propulsion Element is the highest-powered solar electric propulsion spacecraft ever built. NASA has invested over $1 billion in the PPE and the system is nearly complete. In January, the agency announced the PPE successful power-up confirming its ability to provide power, high-rate communications, attitude control, and the ability to maintain and maneuver between orbits. In the second quarter, we will integrate the spacecraft's rollout solar arrays in preparation for final delivery to NASA.
We have the ability to leverage the spacecraft design for future applications. At our Texas headquarters, with new expertise provided from Lantaris, we are building our first lunar data relay satellite and expect that satellite to launch with our IM-3 mission, which we believe will start the operational task orders portion of the $4.82 billion Near Space Network Services contract. We expect this first of five satellites to support future lunar missions which are all progressing through testing and integration in preparation for our next two contracted delivery missions. IM-3 is progressing well, as all robotic mechanisms from our Maryland facility delivered in the fourth quarter.
Now our team is working on lander assembly, integration, and test for the mission later this year. IM-4 remains on track for 2027, and the mission plan includes flying two additional lunar data relay satellites to open more connect services under the Near Space Network Services contract and recognize higher-margin revenue servicing, specifically NASA's Artemis IV human landing mission. The lunar data relay satellites are our first connected space infrastructure assets. They are connected to Earth by our partners' global ground stations. Collectively, this forms a secure space data network, a communications navigation architecture we intend to offer as a subscription data service with recurring revenue in conjunction with pay-by-the-minute operations.
We believe most of the market understands networks being provided for Earth from space, whether it is internet, satellite radio, or broadband. It is important to understand the distinction, however. We are creating a network for space from space—an internet for the solar system. Today, NASA provides that capability through the Deep Space Network. Spacecraft operators request time on that network and pay for access to communicate with their deep space missions. Deep space communications bandwidth, though, is limited and is multiple times oversubscribed. For example, NASA has indicated that live video from Artemis II will likely be transmitted at a low resolution. Intuitive Machines, Inc. is working to solve that challenge.
Higher data rates require our relay satellites and additional communications infrastructure operating between the moon and Earth. On Earth, Intuitive Machines, Inc. is expanding its network coverage, adding a new ground station partnership in Australia, and working to upgrade additional partner facilities around the world. The Australian just successfully downlinked data from the James Webb Space Telescope, confirming that it can operate within NASA's existing network and reduce its bandwidth constraints. For space, Intuitive Machines, Inc. continues to evolve globally, signing a strategic agreement with Leonardo and Telespazio to connect our lunar relay systems together and support European exploration missions. The next phase for the company is to operate the built and connected spacecraft as long-term infrastructure.
The immediate opportunity for that model is already captured in the Near Space Network Services contract. While the always-on network provides subscription-based data connection, additional value comes from operating hosted payloads and sensors to create new markets for science, reconnaissance, and exploration. The near-term catalyst for higher-margin infrastructure operations is surface mobility. The Lunar Terrain Vehicle program is structured as a long-duration service where the provider builds, delivers, and operates the vehicle on the surface over many years. When selected, the vehicle will become a mobility infrastructure asset on the moon connected to our space data network generating recurring revenue for NASA and commercial customers over time. Moving forward, the company sees growth opportunities from an operator's perspective.
These opportunities include tracking and data relay satellite services, Mars Telecom Network Services, and the Missile Defense Shield program, while also adapting the 1,300 series spacecraft class for Space Force for highly maneuverable satellites and evolving our satellite platforms for applications in the burgeoning orbital data center market. To support these growth opportunities, last month we completed a $175 million strategic equity investment to advance communications data processing networks, including extending flight-proven satellite platforms. Intuitive Machines, Inc. intends to invest in expanding its Near Space Network Service and establish a solar system internet.
Through investments in the Lantaris platforms, and specifically the 1,300 series, the company believes it can grow market share in geostationary orbit, expand capability around the moon, extend capability to Mars, and support emerging high-power on-orbit data processing and edge computing. I will now turn the call over to Peter McGrath for the financial results.
Peter McGrath: Thank you, Steve. Thanks to everyone joining us today. As Steve mentioned, we made strategic moves last year to transform Intuitive Machines, Inc. to become the next-generation space prime, providing delivery, data, and infrastructure services, emphasizing growth in communications, navigation, and space data network for defense, civil, and commercial markets. The decision to acquire Lantaris positions the company for sustainable long-term growth. As a reminder, we closed the Lantaris acquisition on January 13. Therefore, the 2025 financials do not include Lantaris. Q4 financials do include the impact of Kinetics, which was completed on October 1.
Before reviewing the quarter, I want to highlight earlier this month we were awarded a multiyear contract as part of the Space Development Agency's Tranche 3 Tracking Layer, which expands our roles supporting the national security space architecture. This award reinforces our diversification and market expansion into national security programs, supporting sustained long-term growth in backlog and revenue. Back to the quarter, Q4 2025 revenue was $44.8 million, driven primarily by CLPS, ALMS, and NSNS execution. While Q4 revenue reflected program timing and government budget delays, we exited the year with strong contract momentum and major awards already announced in early 2026.
Since year end, we were awarded the SDA Tranche 3, as referenced, and we expect decisions on large programs, including Lunar Terrain Vehicle services and NASA's CLPS CT-4 mission. O&M revenue was $14.7 million in the quarter. For the year, excluding revenue was up approximately 65% year over year, driven by continued growth across all key program