Shares of Intuitive Machines Inc. continued their slide Tuesday as the space-exploration company’s Odysseus moon lander runs out of power on the lunar surface.
Odysseus, the first commercial lander to successfully reach the lunar surface, had 10 to 20 hours of battery life left, Intuitive Machines
LUNR,
said on Tuesday morning. On Monday the company said that the mission would be cut short. The lander toppled onto its side during its landing near the moon’s south pole last week.
Related: Intuitive Machines cuts Odysseus moon mission short; stock continues to slide
The Associated Press reported that the abbreviated mission will be two or three days short of the roughly one-week time span that NASA and other Intuitive Machines customers had been counting on for the lander’s communications.
Intuitive Machines shares are down 2.6% Tuesday after ending Monday’s session down 34.6%, registering their biggest single-day percentage decline since Feb. 23, 2023, when they fell 75.24%, Dow Jones Market Data show.
Related: Odysseus lander makes history by reaching moon, as Intuitive Machines’ stock rockets 35%
The IM-1 mission is carrying NASA instruments focusing on plume-surface interactions, space-weather and lunar-surface interactions, radio astronomy and precision-landing technologies, along with a communication and navigation node for future autonomous-navigation technologies, according to the space agency.
Intuitive Machines shares are up 101.5% in the last three months, outpacing the S&P 500 index’s
SPX
gain of 11.4%.
The company’s Nova-C landers, each of which has slight vehicle modifications, are scheduled for three missions to the moon, according to Intuitive Machines.
