Space exploration company Intuitive Machines Inc. (NASDAQ:LUNR) is gearing up for its second moon landing attempt on Wednesday, with the anticipation sending its stock higher in after-hours trading.
What happened: The Houston-based firm, which made history last year by becoming the first private company to touchdown on the moon, prepares to land its Nova-C lunar lander near the lunar south pole.
Interestingly, the lunar lander, part of Intuitive Machines' historic expedition last year, has an old 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, paid for entirely with the meme coin.
The satellite was supposed 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.
See Also: Peter Schiff Questions Michael Saylor-Led Strategy’s Leverage Bitcoin Play Amid MSTR Decline: ‘Massive Dilution Has Destroyed Shareholder Value’
As things turned out, the satellite missed the planned rideshare with the IM-1 mission and was subsequently postponed. Regardless, the association produced significant hype for both the company and Dogecoin.
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 netted you a return of 158%, while the LUNR stock would have trimmed your investment by 35.83%.
| Assets | Price (Recorded on Feb. 26, 2023) | Investment | Price (Recorded on Feb. 26 at 2:30 a.m. ET) | Value Of Investments Today | Gains +/- |
| LUNR Stock | $24.00 | $1000 | $15.40 | $641.66 | -35.83% |
| Dogecoin | $0.08078 | $1000 | $0.2092 | $2589.74 | +158.975% |
Price Action: Shares of LUNR surged 6.30% in after-hours trading, after closing 9.25% lower at $15.40 during Tuesday's regular session, according to data from Benzinga Pro. The stock has a consensus price target of $15.83 based on 6 analyst ratings.
As of this writing, Dogecoin traded at $0.2101, up 2.84% in the last 24 hours.
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