Intuitive Machines shares descend fast after the CEO says the moon lander is on its side

WASHINGTON DC: Shares of moon lander maker Intuitive Machines (LUNR.O), opens new tab tumbled 30% in extended trade, wiping out a Friday rally after the company said its spacecraft had tipped over shortly after touching down on the lunar surface a day earlier.

The stock of the first private company to successfully land on the moon nearly doubled from $4.98 before the Feb. 15 launch to $9.59 as of Friday's close. Friday's late-day sell-off left it below $7.

Still, the company said the spacecraft Odysseus is "alive and well" and engineers were sending commands to the vehicle, and NASA officials at a news conference praised the effort.

The first touchdown on the lunar surface by a U.S. spacecraft in more than half a century enthused investors of fellow space startups, sending up shares of companies such as Astra Space (ASTR.O), opens new tab and Satellogic (SATL.O), opens new tab. They slipped between 0.5% and 2.8% in after-hours trading.

Stephen Altemus, CEO of Houston-based Intuitive Machines, which built and flew the lander, said the vehicle is believed to have caught one of its six landing feet on the lunar surface during its final descent and tipped over, coming to rest on its side propped up on a rock.

He said teams were working to obtain the first photo images from the lunar surface at the landing site.

Company executives said all of the lander's active payloads - all payloads but one, an art piece - were facing upwards and expected to carry out their scientific objectives.

Andres Sheppard, senior analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, which was an investment banking partner for Intuitive Machines, before the news of the tip-over had described the landing as a major achievement that should boost awareness and credibility for the entire space industry and new companies.

Enthusiasm on Friday had pushed Intuitive Machines' stock market value near $1 billion.

However, just 18% of the company's shares are available for trading on the stock market, with most of Intuitive Machines' stock held by insiders and major investors, according to LSEG data. That makes the over-$850 million worth of the company's shares exchanged on Friday a massive turnover for a single session.

The Texas-based company's lunar lander touched down at the Malapert A crater, about 300 km (190 miles) from the moon's south pole on Thursday.

It was sent to the moon last Thursday using a Falcon 9 rocket launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

he company, co-founded in 2013 by serial space industry investor Kam Ghaffarian and NASA veterans Altemus and Tim Crain, is awaiting first images from the lunar surface.

The landing could open the doors to investments and government contracts, helping space companies ride out what has been a tough period of funding due to an uncertain economy.