Intuitive Machines' Athena lander lifting off via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in February. Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP via Getty Images
Intuitive Machines to acquire navigation software provider for $30M
The space exploration company is bringing in-house one of its partners, which has supported two flights to the moon.
Intuitive Machines, a 12-year-old space exploration company that went public in 2023, has agreed to acquire another aerospace company for approximately $30 million to add more navigation and ground software technologies.
KinetX opened for business in 1992 and describes itself as the only company currently certified by NASA for deep space navigation, which includes flight dynamics and other software tools for lunar and interplanetary missions.
Through this purchase announced Wednesday, Intuitive Machines plans to add Kinetx’s software stack with its flight systems to position for opportunities in programs such as NASA’s Near Space Network for communications.
KinetX has provided its navigation software stack in support of Intuitive Machines’ flights to the moon in February 2024 and March of this year.
“Bringing KinetX in-house gives us both flight-proven deep space navigation expertise and the proprietary software behind some of the most ambitious missions in the solar system,” Intuitive Machines’ chief executive Steve Altemus said in a release. “These capabilities accelerate our ability to deliver secure, autonomous data relay and constellation services at scale, reinforcing our position as a trusted provider for NASA, national security space and future Mars operations.”
Kinetx has recorded approximately $6.2 million in unclassified prime contracting revenue over the trailing 12 months with all of that spend from NASA, according to USASpending.gov data.
Houston-headquartered Intuitive Machines became a publicly-traded company in February 2023 via its merger with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company.
In addition to lunar landings, Intuitive Machines also centers its strategy around data transmission services and what it calls space infrastructure-as-a-service. The idea behind the latter area is to give customers a scalable, on-demand option for space-based services.