Intuitive Machines, the Houston company that landed on the Moon in 2024, reported the biggest quarter in its history on November 12. Most of the growth comes from acquisitions and new government contracts, and the company has narrowed its forecast for the year.

The Numbers

  • Revenue: $269.3 million, up from $52.4 million a year earlier.
  • Adjusted EBITDA: positive $8.3 million, against a loss of $13.2 million a year ago.
  • Free cash flow: about $33 million, the company's first positive quarter.
  • Operating loss: $34.2 million, wider than last year's $15.4 million.
  • Net loss: $3.4 million, much smaller than the operating loss because of a $30 million non-cash gain on the value of the company's warrants.
  • Backlog: $1.87 billion at the end of September, up from $213 million at the end of 2025.
  • Cash: $463.8 million.

Read the headline with the details. The backlog jump includes $613 million that came with the January acquisition of Lanteris and $32 million with the UK's Goonhilly Earth Station, alongside about $1.77 billion in new awards. Gross margin also benefited from one-time program adjustments the company did not quantify, and the quarter carried acquisition, legal, and credit-loss costs. Full-year revenue guidance was narrowed to $920 million to $950 million, from $900 million to $1 billion; the CFO tied that to the timing of some expected contract changes and awards.

What's Next on the Moon

The company's third lunar mission, IM-3, is now aimed at a launch window around the end of the first quarter or April 2027, CEO Steve Altemus said on the earnings call. It will carry the first satellite of Altus, the company's planned relay network for communications around the Moon. The next four Altus satellites have been moved up to launch together in 2028.

Since the quarter ended, Intuitive Machines has been named a vendor on NASA's second Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract, a $10 billion program, and won a role on the JPL Earth-science mission FALCON-RADAR. It has also been turning its spacecraft into a product line for other missions.

The Houston Angle

The company says its new mission operations center at its Houston headquarters is finished and operator training has started, with a backup center under construction in Maryland. Neither the release nor the call said anything new about lunar rovers or the Moon RACER terrain vehicle, which we covered in our report on its lunar robotics center and Mars mobility work. With nearly $2 billion of work booked, the company's growth is now being driven as much by satellites and Earth science as by landers.

Figures are from Intuitive Machines' third-quarter 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, November 12, 2026). Mission timing and guidance commentary are from the company's earnings call the same day.