Intuitive Machines announced last week an $800 million acquisition that will catapult the one-time startup into the space industry establishment.
The company’s planned purchase of Lanteris Space Systems, a satellite manufacturer you may have never heard of, is rather significant. Lanteris is the latest addition to a line of corporate brands that dates back to 1957. Until last month, the company was known as Maxar Space Systems. Its acquisition by Intuitive Machines would be perhaps the industry’s most evident example of a “New Space” firm buying up an “Old Space” company.
The deal would help Intuitive Machines expand beyond its core competency of Moon missions to the broader sector of satellite manufacturing and space services. Lanteris has been owned since 2023 by Advent International, a private equity firm. The transaction is expected to close early next year, subject to “customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions,” according to Intuitive Machines.
Importantly, the acquisition of Lanteris will shore up Intuitive Machines’ balance sheet. Intuitive Machines reported $228 million in revenue last year. With Lanteris in the fold, the company predicts its revenue will grow to $850 million, enough to become profitable.
“As a standalone company, Lanteris is a cash generating business,” Intuitive Machines said in a press release. “As a combined company, Intuitive Machines expects to have adequate cash on hand for continued operations.”
Houston-based Intuitive Machines was founded in 2013 by businessman Kam Ghaffarian and veteran NASA engineers Stephen Altemus and Tim Crain. The company, now traded on the public market, is best known for building commercial robotic lunar landers. Its first two Moon missions, developed under contract to NASA, reached the lunar surface in February 2024 and in March of this year. The IM-1 and IM-2 landers tipped over after touchdown, prompting engineers to make design changes before the company’s next lunar mission in 2026.