Intuitive Machines Books $600 Million Order for Three GEO Communications Satellites

Intuitive Machines won a $600 million contract from an undisclosed customer to build three geostationary orbit communications satellites, the company disclosed August 13 in its second quarter earnings results. The award, signed in June, marks a substantial commercial win for a company best known for its lunar landers.

Intuitive Machines entered the GEO satellite manufacturing business through its acquisition late last year of Lanteris Space Systems, formerly Maxar Space Systems. It produces GEO satellites using its 1300-series bus, now called IM 1300. Chief executive Steve Altemus said the company continues to see strong demand for the platform, describing it as flight-proven.

Altemus provided few details about the order during the earnings call. He said the three geostationary communication satellites are valued at over $600 million over the next 30 months. When asked whether the contract was linked to the clearing of satellite C-band spectrum for terrestrial applications approved by the Federal Communications Commission last month, he declined to say, telling analysts, "In the future, we'll come out and give you a little more color on that."

Under that FCC action, satellite operators Eutelsat, SES and Telesat will receive more than $6 billion to vacate 160 megahertz of upper C-band spectrum, requiring new satellites to move affected services to the remaining portion of satellite C-band or other frequencies. SES said it plans to deploy seven hybrid C/Ku-band satellites as part of that process, and an SES executive told the FCC in June that the company was actively negotiating contracts for both satellites and launches. Eutelsat and Telesat have not disclosed what new satellites they will procure.

Beyond the GEO order, Intuitive Machines has more than 70 of the smaller IM 300 satellites on order, including 18 announced August 4 for the Space Development Agency's Accelerated Missile Defense Tranche 3 program from prime contractor L3Harris. Altemus said the company has more than 80 spacecraft under contract in total, spanning IM 300 and IM 1300 satellites, lunar landers, lunar communications orbiters and one-off spacecraft such as an orbital transfer vehicle called Nebula. He said the company has capacity and has been adding more, expanding facilities at its Houston headquarters and noting it has not yet tapped out the full 300-series production line in California.

The company also updated the status of a five-spacecraft lunar communications constellation. The first, Altus-1, is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2027 as a rideshare payload on the Falcon 9 launch of the IM-3 lunar lander mission. The remaining four, previously planned for launch on later lander missions, will now fly on a dedicated launch in 2028.

Altemus said the dedicated launch will speed deployment of the full constellation, which would not have been completed until 2029 or 2030 using the original rideshare approach. Accelerated deployment would make the satellites available to support Artemis lunar landing missions. The satellites are owned by Intuitive Machines, which will offer communications services to NASA and others on a pay-by-the-minute basis.

Intuitive Machines is negotiating with NASA for the dedicated launch to fly all four satellites simultaneously on an independent mission, Altemus said, though he did not disclose details of that effort or any additional costs tied to the accelerated deployment. The company also indicated it may release more information later about whether the GEO satellite order is connected to the C-band clearing process.