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Satellite Evolution

Intuitive Machines, to list on Nasdaq through merger with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp

Intuitive Machines, LLC, a leading space exploration, infrastructure, and services company founded in 2013, and Inflection Point Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, today announced that they have signed a definitive business combination agreement that will result in Intuitive Machines becoming publicly listed.


Upon the closing of the transaction, the combined company will be named Intuitive Machines Inc., and its securities will be listed on Nasdaq.


“As the United States plans its return to the Moon after a 50-year absence, Intuitive Machines is excited to play a critical role in providing technologies and services to establish long-term lunar infrastructure and commerce,” said Kam Ghaffarian, Ph. D., Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Intuitive Machines. “What’s different this time is that the U.S. government has astutely chosen to utilize partnerships with the private sector to accomplish its goals more quickly and more cost-effectively,” he said.


“The objective is to create a thriving commercial ecosystem for space for the benefit of civilization,” said Dr. Ghaffarian. “This has created a massive secular growth opportunity for space as an industry. We have already seen companies such as SpaceX seize this moment and achieve fantastic results, and we are all still in the very early days of this new phase of space exploration, with tremendous growth potential ahead.”


Intuitive Machines is developing advanced space technologies including propulsion systems, lunar mobility vehicles, power plants, and human systems. The Company’s technical capabilities support four distinct business units:

  1. Lunar Access Services, which will utilise the Company’s proprietary lunar lander to fly scientific, commercial and infrastructure equipment and systems to the lunar surface for both government and commercial clients.

  2. Lunar Data Services, which will leverage its six strategically positioned ground stations across Earth and a planned lunar constellation to facilitate the provision of secure lunar communications, navigation and imagery.

  3. Orbital Services, which will operate missions and develop technologies enabling space logistics including satellite rideshare, repositioning, refueling and orbital debris removal.

  4. Space Products and Infrastructure, which will develop and provide propulsion systems, navigation systems, specialty engineering services, lunar mobility, power infrastructure (Fission Surface Power) and human systems.

The US government is heavily committed to space – the NASA budget for 2022 is $24 billion and the US Space Force saw a 26% year over year increase in its projected 2023 budget to $24.5 billion. The accessible Total Addressable Market (TAM) for Intuitive Machines is approximately $120 billion over the next decade, with approximately $105 billion in lunar services (2021-2030), according to the 2022 Moon Markets Analysis by Northern Sky Research (NSR), and approximately $14 billion in earth orbital services (2022-2031), according to NSR’s IoSM reports in 2021 and 2022.


“We are in a leading position in the development of lunar space, to be for the Moon what steamships, toll roads and rail companies were to Earth economies,” said Steve Altemus, Co-Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Intuitive Machines. “Each successive mission will allow us to extend our advantage as we deliver satellites to lunar orbit, deliver systems to the lunar surface and collect critical scientific and engineering data. We expect this will create an incredibly strong competitive position for the Company in just a few years and be a foundation of U.S. space exploration, a national asset.”


The Company forecasts annual revenue of $102 million for 2022 rising to $291 million for 2023, underpinned by a material contract backlog of $188 million as of June 2022, the majority of which is with the federal government.


“We are building on a nearly 10-year operating history, a solid foundation of contracted business, a highly capital efficient model and fiscal discipline, hallmarks we intend to continue,” said Erik Sallee, CFO of Intuitive Machines. “We believe we are positioning ourselves to continue to aggressively grow our already significant book of contracted business by going where the customers are today to deploy our high reliability space systems and expand our product offerings to the commercial market. As we increase our commercial business mix over time and provide more services based offerings, we see a clear path to industry leading margins within a three year time horizon. ”


The combined company has secured $55 million of committed capital from entities affiliated with Inflection Point’s sponsor and from a founder of Intuitive Machines, in addition to a $50 million equity facility provided by CF Principal Investments LLC, an affiliate of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., which the Company expects will fund the business plan to profitability over the next 2-3 years.


“We are proud to be partnering with Intuitive Machines at a pivotal point in the Company’s history,” said Michael Blitzer, Co-CEO of Inflection Point. “This transaction will provide the capital to execute on the rapidly growing demand for the Company’s proprietary technologies and services with key government and commercial customers.”

“The history of commercial technological innovation is that great companies dominate their markets and then extend into and lead new ones,” said Guy Shanon, Co-CEO of Inflection Point. “This is what Intuitive Machines is doing,” he explained. “The Company already has a sizable opportunity just from government contracting activity. We believe the upside from what is to come as the Moon becomes more travelled and better understood as a strategic defense asset and a basecamp for exploring the rest of the solar system is a generational opportunity.”


Transaction Overview

Pursuant to the transaction, Inflection Point, which currently holds approximately $330 million of cash in trust, including $29 million of committed capital from an affiliate of its sponsor, will combine with Intuitive Machines. The pro forma implied enterprise value of the combined company is approximately $815 million. Intuitive Machines’ existing equity security holders are expected to hold approximately 62% of the issued and outstanding shares of common stock of the combined company immediately following the consummation of the transaction, assuming no redemptions by Inflection Point’s existing shareholders.


The board of directors of Inflection Point and the board of managers of Intuitive Machines have both unanimously approved the proposed transaction. Completion of the proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of the shareholders of Inflection Point and the members of Intuitive Machines and the receipt of certain governmental and regulatory approvals, and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2023.

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