Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: IM) has reported a substantial revenue increase of over 300% in the first quarter of 2024, reaching $73.1 million, due to the success of their IM-1 mission and the full quarter operations of OMS 3.
The company also highlighted their first successful lunar mission, which has disrupted lunar economics and broken technological barriers. With a strong cash balance and a significant contracted backlog, Intuitive Machines is optimistic about their future growth, expecting to generate between $200 million and $240 million in revenue for 2024.
Key Takeaways
- Intuitive Machines reported a revenue of $73.1 million in Q1 2024, a 300% increase year-over-year.
- The company's successful IM-1 mission and OMS 3 operations have contributed significantly to revenue growth.
- A Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services contract worth over $4.6 billion is expected to further increase revenue in 2024.
- The company has a cash balance of $55.2 million and expects it to be sufficient through the end of the year.
- Intuitive Machines has a contracted backlog of $222.3 million and anticipates growth throughout the year.
- Revenue outlook for 2024 is projected between $200 million and $240 million, driven by recent awards and expected contracts.
Company Outlook
- Intuitive Machines aims to achieve free cash flow break-even and focus on higher-margin business.
- The company is at the forefront of the new space race and is committed to supporting global space endeavors.
- Technological advancements in autonomous vehicle operations and precision landing are key to the company's strategy.
Bearish Highlights
- The first communications satellite did not meet NASA's requirements, necessitating the development of a new satellite, Khon-2.
Bullish Highlights
- Intuitive Machines is expecting a significant NASA award for communications data relay services.
- The company has received interest from businesses for commercial use of Lunar Transfer Vehicles (LTVs) for various lunar operations.
Misses
- No specific misses were mentioned in the earnings call summary provided.
Q&A Highlights
- CEO Steven Vontur discussed NASA's plans to use LTVs for autonomous missions and the potential for commercial use.
- The company is in talks with potential payload customers to fill available slots on the LTVs.
- Interest from the Department of Defense in the cislunar economy is growing as lunar activities increase.
In conclusion, Intuitive Machines has demonstrated a remarkable first-quarter performance with record-breaking revenue, a robust cash balance, and a significant contracted backlog. The company is poised for continued growth with its innovative lunar mission technologies and strategic contracts, including the sizable Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services contract.
As Intuitive Machines advances in the new space race, its focus on sustainable lunar presence and expanding commercial opportunities positions it as a key player in the evolving space exploration and exploitation industry.
InvestingPro Insights
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Full transcript - Intuitive Machines Inc (LUNR) Q1 2024:
Operator: Welcome to Intuitive Machines First Quarter 2024 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Now I would like to hand the conference over to your host, Stephen Zhang, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead sir.
Stephen Zhang: Good morning. Welcome to the Intuitive Machines first quarter 2024 earnings call. Chief Executive Officer, Steve Altemus; and Interim Chief Financial Officer and Controller, Steven Vontur 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 release and the company's most recent 10-K and 10-Q 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-K. Finally, we posted an earnings call presentation on our website, which provides additional context on our operational and financial performance. You can find this presentation on our Investor Relations page at www.intuitivemachine.com/investors. I'll now turn the call over to Steve Altemus.
Steve Altemus: Thanks, Stephen. We had an excellent start to the year anchored by our successful IM-1 mission and a full quarter of OMS 3 operations. Revenue was $73.1 million in the quarter, an increase of over 300% versus quarter one of last year. This was yet another historic feat for the company and showcased our continued growth trajectory. The standout accomplishment in the first quarter was Intuitive Machines' first successful lunar mission which fundamentally disrupted the economics of landing on the moon and broke economic and technological barriers to enable this new burgeoning lunar economy. Thank you to the Intuitive Machines team for their execution during this quarter and willingness to challenge traditional paradigms of exploration. Intuitive Machines' efforts and successes do not stand alone. On May 3rd, China launched Chang'e-6 to the far side of the moon on their way to potentially being the first nation to return samples from the far side. The steady drumbeat of China's success demonstrates the strategic importance of the moon and we hope is a call to action for the U.S. government and the public of what Intuitive Machines is building and the importance of stable funding and commercial utilization. We are at the forefront of this new space race and committed to our position as a national asset supporting the global endeavors in space. In this rapidly evolving landscape, technological advancement is paramount. We believe Intuitive Machines is standing at the forefront of this imperative. The success of our complete lunar program in the first quarter showcased the commercial viability and agility required to put the industry firmly in the space race with the company standing as a first mover in this effort. In the weeks following our lunar landing, we assessed how our four-year investment in technology development performed. Our team at Intuitive Machines completed a comprehensive [ph] and customer data delivery. We continue to strive for perfection in navigating to pinpoint landing accuracy on the surface with our autonomous precision landing and hazard avoidance technology. Each mission exercises and refines a complex set of algorithms that make such autonomy possible in the harshest environments of the moon, namely the South Pole. The review resulted in software and hardware advancements that we believe expand our technical capability to track our vehicle accurately in space and land with 20 times better precision on our next mission. In addition, we reviewed our lunar distance RF communications and orbit determination capabilities and found several technical adjustments we expect will improve mission performance and best position the company to provide lunar communication services in support of future human missions. The technical improvements for IM-2 are vertically integrated capabilities within the company that we can perform with little to no impact on our intended quarter 4 2024 launch date or require any additional capital investment while we continue assembly of the flight vehicle. At its core, this comprehensive review confirmed that the technology we developed to provide lunar access and lunar data services is robust and we are capable of making agile adjustments that improve our customer experience on the lunar surface. This tech capability expansion in autonomous vehicle operations, precision landing, and navigation is focused on the goal of adding command control communications and surface operations to our current lunar access services in a sustainable way. Beyond our first of three planned lunar missions, the April 3rd announcement of Intuitive Machines Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services Award moves us beyond the delivery of science and discovery payloads and onto heavier cargo delivery and surface systems development and operations. The LTV delivery system, the rover design itself, and both the autonomous and crewed operations represent the first critical piece of infrastructure for the Artemis campaign. The Lunar Terrain Vehicle contract has a total program value of over $4.6 billion and is structured across multiple phased awards. In the first phase, starting in the days following Q1, the Intuitive Machines-led Moon Racer team will take the next year to create a preliminary design for delivery, deployment, and autonomous operations of the LTV. The second phase, which we expect to be awarded in mid-2025, calls for the vehicle's delivery and deployment demonstration. If awarded, the second phase, Intuitive Machines' current lunar production and operations center in Houston will be the epicenter for the design, development, manufacturing, assembly, and test of the larger cargo lander and the LTV surface vehicle itself as the program matures. It's important to note the company's cargo class lander uses the same core technologies as our smaller Nova-C lander and the LTV services project allows for NASA and commercial service operations led by Intuitive Machines. Beyond the initial demonstration, another phase of the contract will move into continuous operations on the lunar surface over a multi-year performance period. For Intuitive Machines, the next critical chess piece in laying the foundation for a cislunar economy is in the command and control and communications infrastructure in and around the Moon. Every commercial, government, or international mission to the moon requires a very high degree of autonomy. Autonomous operations with reliable command and control communications are essential for the expansion of this lunar economy. Intuitive machines, technological advancements, and autonomous vehicle operations and precision navigation will be the backbone of its command and control system. These core technologies are applied to our lunar communication satellites currently in production, and Intuitive Machines is eagerly anticipating announcement of a significant NASA award for communications data relay services and position navigation and timing services. We are expecting this contract award announcement in the second quarter. Earlier, I mentioned that we broke economic and technical barriers that enable cislunar expansion. I believe we are progressing with the necessary investments in technologies to demonstrate the same unprecedented economics deeper into the solar system. Already, we are seeing the United States government and NASA increase their reliance on procuring commercially provided systems and services. The ability of the U.S. to leverage the ingenuity and innovation of its economic and technical industrial base to break the price barriers of traditional aerospace systems speaks to the difference in the overall U.S. strategy for cislunar expansion, and possibly the most powerful competitive advantage for the U.S. in this global space race. During our last call, we mentioned NASA's 2024 budget reduction, noting that much of the $2 billion shortfall came from the Mars Sample Return Program. Since that update, the agency has sought innovative commercial designs to disrupt the cost of delivering Mars samples back to Earth. Intuitive Machines has engaged the agency and intends to provide a solution set based on technology architecture we have been developing for lunar material return. Finally, we continue to make progress towards our IM-2 mission that we expect to launch later this year to our South Pole landing site, potentially becoming the first company to land on the Moon twice in one year. We anticipate our third mission in 2025, with the final landing date still in discussions with NASA. We now have more certainty about NASA's second quarter 2024 award of the next CLPS mission, CP-22 that calls for launch in the 2027 timeframe. This shift in mission timing creates an opportunity for Intuitive Machines to insert its first fully commercial mission after IM-3 as its fourth mission to the Moon. With the success of Q1 in the execution of our business plan, and now the stability recognized through our pending proposal awards, Intuitive Machines is prepared to issue full-year revenue guidance for 2024. Steve Vontur will go through the details of the guidance. I am pleased to report on the tremendous growth and maturity we have seen over this quarter, and I'm excited about what the balance of this year holds for Intuitive Machines. With that, I'll turn the call over to Intuitive Machines Interim Chief Financial Officer, Steve Vontur.
Steven Vontur: Thank you, Steve, and thanks to everyone joining us today. I'll begin by going through our first quarter 2024 results, followed by a few comments on our liquidity, backlog and 2024 revenue guidance. Revenue accelerated in the quarter and with $73.1 million compared to $18.2 million in the first quarter of 2023, driven primarily by our first full quarter of OMS-3 revenues of just over $40 million, and rounded out with revenue from our three NASA Eclipse and related mission payloads. We had a couple of one-time revenue impacts in the quarter. First, we had about $12 million related to the IM-1 mission success milestones. We also recorded an additional $5.6 million of revenue combined on the IM-2 and IM-3 Eclipse task quarters relating to contract modifications as we work with NASA to finalize updates to mission timing, payloads, and landing sites for the remaining two missions. As mentioned earlier by Steve, we expect the IM-2 mission to launch in late 2024 and IM-3 sometimes in 2025. Gross margin continued to improve versus prior quarters and was a positive $12.2 million this quarter, driven primarily by the IM-1 mission success milestones and modifications on the other two missions, as well as the OMS-3 activity. Operating loss for this quarter was $5.4 million versus $14 million in the first quarter of 2023. The lower operating loss in the quarter was again driven primarily by the items noted above and were partially offset by higher G&A. SG&A ran higher in Q1 2024 and was primarily driven by incentive comp and overall headcount increases, including higher non-cash equity awards that did not exist in the first quarter of the last year. In addition, we saw increases in other expenses such as accounting and legal professional fees, bids and proposal expenses, and rent on the new corporate headquarters as we continue to support the company's rapid growth. Included in the quarter were one-time charges totaling approximately $5.7 million. On the cash side, we ended Q1 with a balance of $55.2 million, driven primarily by the $50.6 million in proceeds from warrant exercises. This is the strongest quarter in cash position ever and reflects our continued focus on working capital management coupled with capital conservation and liquidity. We continue to believe that our Q1 ending cash balance is sufficient to fund operations through the end of the year. In addition, we expect to add cash reserves throughout the remainder of the year as we execute on planned operations and continue to win new business. As we previously stated, we will continue to be opportunistic in the capital markets for defensive capital and to further strengthen our balance sheet. Operating cash used was $6.4 million in the quarter with capital expenditures of $1.6 million, resulting in free cash flow for the quarter of an outflow of $8 million, which reflects the lowest quarter cash burn since going public. We continue to strive towards free cash flow break-even as we remain disciplined with expenditures while prioritizing a higher margin business. We ended the first quarter with contracted backlog of $222.3 million, an expected decline of about $46.3 million as we executed on our CLIPS and OMES contracts. We expect backlog to grow during the remainder of the year, driven by key program awards, including LTV and the next OMES-3 task orders, coupled with new award decisions, including NSNS and CP-22. Moving on to our outlook for the year, as Steve said, we had a great start with record revenues in the quarter. The recent LTVS award and the solid opportunities expected to be awarded in the next couple of quarters gives us confidence in providing a 2024 revenue outlook of between $200 million and $240 million, representing an increase of 2.5 times to 3.0 times prior year revenues. Overall, this was a record quarter, both financially and operationally, for Intuitive Machines. This strength gives us confidence to provide an expanded revenue outlook for the year, which showcases the company's tremendous opportunity for continued growth. We look forward to executing on this growth throughout the year. With that, operator, we are now ready for the questions.
Operator: Thank you, sir. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Suji DeSilva with Roth MKM. Please go ahead.
Suji DeSilva: Hi, Steven. Steve, congrats on the progress here. In talking about the guidance for 2024, the backlog, I'm curious what the period covered there and how much of that covers your 2024 new guidance of $200 million to $240 million?
Steven Vontur: Thanks, Suji. Before the backlog component, we have about 80% of our backlog sitting right now at about $222 million. We believe about 80% of that backlog will be burned through the remainder of the year.
Suji DeSilva: Okay, that's great. Additionally, with that guidance for 2024, are you assuming a new contract wins in that guidance or is it supported by existing wins and would any additional wins be upside to the 2024 guidance?
Steven Vontur: Yes, hey there, Suji. The way we look at that is we probability weight the awards that we have in pending. So what that includes in the lower end of the guidance is the mod to Mission 2 that we're negotiating with NASA, but there's upside that takes us to the higher end of the range and maybe beyond with a mod to IM-3 on the negotiated landing time. The NSNS award, the next CLPS award, and then an IM-2 success payment. So all of those are probability weighted and that's what gives us the range that Steve described.
Suji DeSilva: Okay, I appreciate the effort there. And then lastly, first time you guys mentioned a potentially all commercial mission inserted between I guess IM-3, IM-4. I'm wondering if that would, Steve, in concept have an anchor customer with some ancillaries or whether it would be equally kind of portioned out in the payloads across sort of a series of customers. What's the general direction that would be?
Steven Vontur: Yes, right now we're aggregating a set of payloads waiting to get to essentially critical manifest where we can go forward with a purchase of a booster. And so those payloads come in fairly evenly sized and occasionally we'll get one that's a little bit larger. And in this case, that's what we're negotiating that gets us to the point where we can actually declare we have this commercial mission. So it'll be kind of a mix to not answer your question directly, but it's kind of a mix as we go forward from smaller to medium to maybe a large payload. And that'll round out the compliment.
Suji DeSilva: That sounded fairly even. Thanks, Steve. Thanks, guys.
Operator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Josh Sullivan with the Benchmark Company. Please go ahead.
Josh Sullivan: Hey, good morning.
Steven Vontur: Good morning, Josh.
Josh Sullivan: As far as the cash burn here, down substantially year-over-year, but what are the big draws in the year end?
Steven Vontur: I missed the last part, Josh. The big draws.
Josh Sullivan: I'm just trying to understand, cash burns down here, you're stating that you think you have a good cash balance here to get you through the end of the year. I'm just curious, what are the large tent poles for cash burn as we work into the end of the year?
Steven Vontur: Yes, we run the indirect support at about $3.3 million a month is our indirect burn. And as part of cost of goods sold, the biggest payments or drawdown would be the booster payments for each of our missions. We have booster payments for IM-2 and IM-3 on the books for this year. And so I'd say those are the biggest ones that we have as accounts payable.
Josh Sullivan: Got it. And then, in your comments there, you mentioned the Chinese lunar mission. You have the Indians looking at their own sample return here. What's your view of that strategic tempo or that conversation in the U.S. as other nation’s ramp up their lunar ambitions? Is it picking up these missions viewed as competition or is NASA really moving at their own pace?
Steven Vontur: Well, I think we're fortunate, as I said, it's the U.S. economy where we have, NASA has or the U.S. government has kind of sparked the U.S. commercial economy to break the price barrier of what it takes to go to the moon. And if we can install an annual cadence of missions to the moon, we will, while it feels like we might be behind in that we don't, aren't flying as frequently or as complex missions as China may be at this point, we'll catch up quickly as we have many more shots on goal. So I think the CLPS program in particular lends itself to building a bigger supply chain and base for us to commercialize the moon. While the heavy lift activity is occurring, which is of strategic interest and heavy lift SLS might be moving to the right, CLPS can fill in with cargo missions to put the critical elements on the surface ahead of the humans. And I think that's where NASA is going and where the government is going. And we're happy to provide that service for them.
Josh Sullivan: Great. Thank you for the time.
Steven Vontur: Thanks, Josh.
Operator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Andres Sheppard with Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.
Andres Sheppard: Hey, everyone. Good morning. Congratulations on the quarter and thanks for taking our questions. I wanted to maybe ask, how should we be thinking about margins for the IM Mission 2 and also maybe for the OMES contract? Just curious if you can maybe point out or give some color there as to kind of what kind of margins might you expect. Thank you.
Steven Vontur: Well, Andres, thanks for the question. So as we've reported historically, IM-2 and IM-3 missions are loss projects or close to break-even. And so as we work the rest of that, those operations off of those contracts, we won't have any margin on that. OMES margin is running in the 5% range on a consolidated basis. So again, don't expect any future losses on the IM-2 or 3 contracts, but we may have some bumps to that with the final success fees, successful BOFSA [ph] fees like we had on IM-1 once we land.
Andres Sheppard: Got it. That's super helpful. Appreciate that. And maybe just a quick follow-up. As it pertains to the Lunar Terrain vehicle contract, can you just remind us what are maybe the next catalysts there? And I guess is that program, is the expectation that it's going to get narrowed from the three companies that have bid to either one or two? Just trying to understand how you might see that one playing out. Thank you.
Steven Vontur: Yes, we have a period of about a year, 12-month period, 10 month to 12 month period, to do the preliminary design of the delivery system and the LTV, as I stated. There's three companies that are doing that over the next year, roughly on the order of a $30 million task order we expect later this month, issued by NASA to kick that off. But then what will happen is there will be a demonstration portion to actually take and fully develop the design, build it, and deliver it to the moon as a demonstration. NASA has indicated that that could be multiple award. Right now they're thinking possibly one, maybe two out of the three companies would go forward with that demonstration. However, let me point out that that's a $4.6 billion contract over 15 years, and it's written so broadly that there are a number of services that can be purchased under that multi-award IDIQ contract. And those services could include things like data sales or communications that go with and complement the LTV itself and the demonstration. So the bigger task order, though, is that one that's issued mid-2025 next year and we compete for with the demonstration.
Andres Sheppard: Got it. Thanks, Steve. That's very helpful and very exciting. Congrats again on the quarter. I'll pass it on. Thank you.
Steven Vontur: Thanks, Andres.
Operator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Griffin Boss with B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead.
Griffin Boss: Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. I'll start on LTV. Can you talk more broadly about what NASA potentially will require from the LTV in terms of capacity or how much time NASA expects to utilize these LTVs and then in turn the possible leftover availability to leverage for commercial use cases? And then related to that, if you've received any initial interest already from potential commercial customers looking to use any excess capacity for the LTV?
Steven Vontur: Well, yes, NASA plans to use the mission for both autonomous science and discovery, where they fly in science payloads to use the LTV mobility capability to gather necessary science, as well as use it for astronauts when they're there present on the surface, moving around cargo and logistics and collecting geological samples and things like that. So there is a plan. I think the overarching plan ranges from about six to seven months a year of NASA use and five to six months of commercial use, which is quite exciting that in this case, Intuitive Machines would own the infrastructure and be able to operate the infrastructure while NASA's not there. That's quite unique in terms of the contract and the service that we provide. We have had interest for individuals or companies that want to do excavating and mining and harvesting of materials on the surface and caching those materials for later return to Earth. So that's quite interesting. And there was a number of, in our commercialization plan that we submitted to NASA, there were a number of letters of interest from companies. I think we had on the order of 10 companies interested in using the LTV should we be awarded the contract. So quite a bit of interest. And I think as we move forward and it gets more attention, that interest will only grow.
Griffin Boss: Got it. Great. Thanks for the color there, Steve. And then more broadly, there's a lot of talk about SpaceX's Starship for various reasons, obviously, but I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on what a successful operational Starship could mean for the future of lunar transport in general and maybe for Intuitive specifically.
Steven Vontur: Yes, as I mentioned in a previous question, I think what's of strategic importance to the United States is the heavy lift capability. And whether that heavy lift comes in the version of the Space Launch System or the Starship, it will be a critical component to sustain human presence on the Moon. What's nice, though, is that Intuitive Machines is complementary to Starship. And Starship, while it has a very heavy cargo and a way to aggregate multiple mission elements on a single mission to the Moon, we’ll have regular cargo deliveries of smaller sizes to the Moon and in various locations around the Moon that will keep the cadence of missions up and will be enough to really feed a community of smaller delivery service companies that will be putting cargo and critical systems and satellites around the Moon and on the Moon.
Griffin Boss: Okay, excellent. And then just if I could sneak one more in there. Without putting words in your mouth, Steve, you talked about the first potential fully commercial mission after IM-3. You said you were aggregating payloads. Would it be right to assume then that you're seeing enough demand today to fulfill a fully commercial mission? Or are you expecting to get whatever incremental demand that would warrant a fully commercial mission within the next two years?
Steven Vontur: We have signed contracts with multiple payloads that we've been aggregating and holding for this commercial mission. And as those come in and as we negotiate those contracts, we get to a point where we have enough to declare a mission. And those negotiations are signed contracts and negotiations underway that give us the opportunity to declare a commercial mission today. We expect more coming in over the next few years. And this gap between the last competed CLPS mission and CP-22, which is the next one, is that two-year gap that we want to fill so that we maintain this cadence of missions going to the Moon. So we see a lot of commercial interest and international interest in terms of signed contracts to fly to the Moon. And we see that growing continually over the next couple of years.
Griffin Boss: Excellent. Great. I appreciate you taking my questions. Thanks, everyone.
Steven Vontur: Thanks, Griffin.
Operator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Austin Moeller with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Austin Moeller: Hi. Good morning. Nice quarter. Just my first question here. Are all the ESPA ring slots on IM-2 and IM-3 currently occupied? And if not, are you still seeking payloads to put on there before integration?
Steven Vontur: So all of the slots -- good question, Austin. It's good to hear from you. All of the slots on IM-2 are filled and we're at max capacity and sold out. We still have some availability on an ESPA ring slot on IM-3 that we're talking with payload -- potential payload customers to fill that slot prior to that mission.
Austin Moeller: Great. And just to follow up, what's currently the status of the first con relay satellite that was supposed to be riding aboard IM-2? How should we be thinking about that?
Steven Vontur: So what we've done is we've combined -- we went back and looked at that in anticipation of an NS award, which I mentioned should be coming out in the second quarter, where hopefully we're awarded that mission. We've built out a much better capability on Khon-2, or our second communications satellite, and found that the first satellite wasn't compliant with the requirements that NASA – we anticipate coming out of NASA. So we built a better -- or are building a better bus and com relay on Khon-2 our second satellite, and we'll fly that on IM-3.
Austin Moeller: Excellent. Thanks for the details.
Steven Vontur: Thanks, Austin.
Operator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Edison Yu with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Edison Yu: Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking our questions. What on the geopolitical angle, how do you think this aspect is sort of playing out, especially with the DoD's view on the cislunar economy at the moment?
Steven Vontur: I missed the last part, Edison, you tailed off there. The DoD's interest in this space race? Is that your comment?
Edison Yu: The cislunar economy.
Steven Vontur: Okay, yes. Well, I think there's some, as stated by a number of the DoD leadership, that there's a lot of interest in what's going on in geo and ex-geo, and that maintains their focus and priority at this point. And I think as the traffic model increases in and around the moon, that will then gain some priority. But they're going to need to see more than one or two missions to the moon a year before they'll be able to reallocate budgets towards cislunar economy. So we're seeing that space force appetite for cislunar capabilities slowly growing over the next couple of years. And then as the traffic, like I said, as the traffic model increases, that appetite for additional information and space traffic management and space domain awareness will increase.
Edison Yu: I understand. And just kind of more longer-term and broader question on LTV, how do you think this sort of fits into the company's overall vision and strategy when we couple that with the upcoming NSNSN and CP22 awards?
Steven Vontur: So I think with respect to LTV, it's part of the strategy to, if I think about it, delivery, to be able to take things to the surface, to be able to communicate, essentially command and control communications around the moon is of critical interest, including navigation. And then the ability to do extreme mobility. And LTV gives you that. And because we can then move around the surface, we can begin to build infrastructure that supports sustained human presence on the moon. And so our company is built an ecosystem of capability in and around the moon, and in terms of delivery, command and control, communications, and extreme mobility. And that's how that all fits together. And we're anxiously awaiting, like I said, that last chess piece in the NSNSN contract to be able to deploy our data relay satellites and provide that service back to the government for communications around the moon.
Edison Yu: Great. Thank you.
Steven Vontur: Thank you, Edison.
Operator: Thank you. There are no further questions. I would like to hand the floor back to Intuitive Machine CEO, Steve Altemus, for closing remarks.
Steve Altemus: Well, thank you, everybody, for attending and joining us today on the call. As you heard, we've had a historic first quarter, both operationally and financially, and we expect to build on that momentum throughout the year. I look forward to talking to you in the future. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
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