Intuitive Machines Preps for Second Moon Landing Attempt, Sending LUNR Stock Higher

Space exploration company Intuitive Machines Inc. LUNR is gearing up for its second moon landing attempt on Wednesday, with the anticipation sending its stock higher. By John P.

Anticipation is building for space exploration company Intuitive Machines Inc's (NASDAQ:LUNR) second moon landing attempt on Wednesday, with the news sending its stock higher in after-hours trading.

What Happened: The Houston, Texas-based firm, which last year became the first private company to touchdown on the moon, will be attempting to land its Nova-C lunar lander near the lunar south pole.

The lunar lander, part of Intuitive Machines' historic expedition last year, also has an interesting connection with Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE), the world’s largest meme cryptocurrency.

DOGE-1 was a satellite mission by Elon Musk's space company, Space X, funded entirely with the meme coin. The satellite was to go as a rideshare on the Nova-C/IM-1 mission, with Intuitive Machines talking about "taking Dogecoin to the Moon" in a post dated May 11, 2021.

We knew @elonmusk was taking #Dogecoin to the Moon, but had no idea it would be on our flight. – First Commercial Lander to the Moonhttps://t.co/UuqQ3pJl8U

— Intuitive Machines (@IntMachines) May 12, 2021As it turned out, the satellite missed the planned rideshare with the IM-1 mission and was subsequently postponed. Nonetheless, the association generated significant buzz for both entities.

Intuitive Machines went public in February 2023. So, if you had invested $1000 in both the company's stock and the meme coin exactly two years ago, Dogecoin would have generated a return of 158%, while the LUNR stock would be down by 35.83%.

Price Action: Shares of LUNR rose 6.30% in after-hours trading on Tuesday. The stock closed 9.25% lower at $15.40 during Tuesday’s regular session, according to Benzinga Pro. The stock has a consensus price target of $15.83 based on 6 analyst ratings.

As of Wednesday morning, Dogecoin traded at $0.2101, showing a 2.84% increase over the past 24 hours.

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