Factbox-Moon landing puts new space race startups in spotlight
(Reuters) — Interest in space startups has spiked after Intuitive Machines became the first private firm to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon, in the first U.S. touchdown on the lunar surface in more than half a century.
Though the lander tipped sideways on the lunar surface, the company is likely to complete its mission and prove the capabilities of such startups.
Declining cost of rocket launches is fueling the boom in the private space industry that could reach about $770 billion by 2027, with some estimating that «New Space» firms could account for a sizable chunk of the market.
Here are some firms working toward exploring the opportunities:
INTUITIVE MACHINES
Intuitive Machines, led by former NASA employees, has two more planned missions to test the possibility of using the Moon's resources for future exploration, and deliver more research tools to the lunar surface for NASA.
The Texas-based company went public in February 2023 through a merger with a blank-check firm and has received $118 million in funding from the U.S. space agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to develop the moon lander.
SPACEX
Elon Musk's SpaceX — one of the world's most valuable startups with a valuation of more than $180 billion — has in recent years led the private sector's efforts in the space industry with its reusable rockets and broadband satellites.
It is set for the third launch of the Starship rocket, the most powerful of its kind, next month.
The long-term target is to land on Mars, the billionaire has said, with the plan of forming a sustainable colony on the red planet and lowering transportation costs into space.
The company's Starlink, a constellation of more than 5,000 satellites, provides
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