Intuitive Machines, Inc. 10-K

Item 1. Business. Overview The following discussion reflects the business of Intuitive Machines, as currently embodied by Intuitive Machines. Our Vision: A diversified space company initially focused on establishing the lunar infrastructure and basis for commerce to inform and sustain human presence off Earth. Right Now: Servicing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”) and a worldwide set of commercial payload customers, working to provide access to the lunar surface, cislunar space and data transmission for science, technology, and infrastructure. Tomorrow: Working to provide a thriving, diverse lunar economy, creating new opportunities and markets to enable on-orbit applications, a permanent presence on the Moon, and expand the commercial space exploration marketplace. We are working to provide access to the lunar surface and collect and transmit cislunar data for science, technology, and infrastructure purposes. As of December 31, 2022, we are one of a select few companies servicing NASA and a worldwide set of commercial payload customers. We believe we have a strong position with a first mover advantage, as evidenced by three Commercial Lunar Payload Services (“CLPS”) awards to date, more than any of our competitors as of December 31, 2022. Intuitive Machine’s Nova-C lander is intended to become the first U.S. vehicle to softly land on the lunar surface since 1972. The lander is capable of carrying up to 130 kilograms of cargo and is designed to execute numerous experiments and technology demonstrations to the lunar surface in 2023. Our goal is for these missions to be followed up by IM-2, which is intended to become the first object to land at the South Pole of the Moon in human history, and IM-3, our third CLPS award which will land at Reiner Gamma. These missions, along with additional expeditions, are in partnership with NASA, Nokia Corporation, SpaceFlight Inc., Columbia Sportswear Company, Aegis Aerospace, Inc. and other commercial players. We offer our customers the flexibility needed to pioneer a thriving and diverse lunar economy designed to enable a permanent presence in lunar orbit and on the lunar surface. Our Industry We believe the commercial lunar economy is poised for growth given a number of key factors, including reduced barriers to entry in space, rising geopolitical tensions, and growing demand and program funding from the U.S. government. Reduced Barriers to Entry: The barriers to entry of the lunar economy have diminished significantly over the past decade. In particular, the costs of launch and lunar exploration have decreased meaningfully since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and early 1970s. NASA currently estimates that the upcoming Artemis I mission will cost approximately $28 billion to fund. Further, public-private partnerships, such as NASA’s commercial lunar payload contract program, are helping private companies pursue innovation and make lunar exploration more affordable than in past decades. Rising Geopolitical Tensions: Additionally, there is geopolitical and policy alignment with the return to the Moon. As described in the 2022 Defense Intelligence Agency report titled Challenges to Security in Space , “China and Russia value superiority in space. As a result, we expect them to seek ways to strengthen their space and counterspace programs, and determine ways to better integrate them into their respective militaries.” Specifically, the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program is already well underway. In 2020, Chang’e 5 successfully returned samples from the Moon. Over the next five years, three more Chang’e 5 missions are planned with the aim of generating products using lunar materials, a practice called in-situ resource utilization. The success of China and the values placed on superiority in space by other countries, such as Russia, has ignited a 21st-century space race that is well underway. Market Push: As a result of the aforementioned factors, government funding for lunar missions has significantly grown as evidenced by the Artemis program. The Artemis program is a bipartisan initiative to return humans to the Moon and eventually achieve human exploration of Mars. Unlike the Apollo program, the Artemis program is relying heavily upon partnership with the private sector in order to accomplish its goals in the most cost-effective manner. Total NASA spending on the Artemis program is expected to reach $93 billion by 2025, according to a recent audit by the NASA Office of Inspector General. The program aims to conduct its first human landing in 2025 and achieve a sustainable human presence on the Moon with a powered habitable base camp by the late 2020s. The $2.6 billion CLPS program that we lead was created to deliver scientific instruments to the Moon to gather data in preparation for the human landing and eventually to deliver support equipment for human presence. Beyond Artemis and CLPS, the Lunar Gateway and Tipping Point contracts (with an approximately value of over $1.0 billion) are incremental evidence of the significant traction in the lunar market. Lunar Gateway is a series of three elements that will create a space station in lunar orbit scheduled to launch in 2024. Tipping Point is a NASA program that seeks industry-developed space technologies that can foster the development of commercial space capabilities and benefit future NASA missions. 1 Our Opportunity We believe we are well-positioned to help ignite the cislunar economy by reducing cost of access while providing reliable missions on a defined schedule. We intend to accomplish this goal by integrating proven commercial technologies where they exist and solving the hardest problems in a vertically integrated manner. We believe we have already demonstrated success in this approach with our propulsion and Guidance, Navigation and Control (“GN&C”) systems, both of which were designed and are produced in-house. We believe that space is the next economic frontier and the increased demand from governments, intelligence agencies, commercial industries, and private individuals has created multiple avenues for long-term growth. We are strongly positioned to exploit this growing market and become a leader with its proprietary technology and active backlog of customers. The end markets that Intuitive Machines addresses represent over $175.0 billion in annual spending and include Space Exploration (estimated NASA spending of $25.0 billion in 2022), National Security Space (estimated Space Force, SDA and MDA spending of $30.0 billion in 2022) and Commercial Satellite Services (estimated spending of $123.0 billion in 2022). Within these markets, Lunar Services and Earth Orbital Services are the primary addressable markets for Intuitive Machines and each represent a more than $100.0 billion opportunity over the next decade. Lunar Services (estimated market size to be approximately $105.0 billion from 2021-2030): We expect crewed missions, infrastructure, transportation, robotics, communication, and science and technology as significant market drivers. Through our Lunar Access Services and Lunar Data Services business units, we believe we are well positioned to be able to grow our business through our lunar landers and market leading capabilities. Orbital Services (estimated market size to be approximately $14.0 billion from 2022-2031): We believe there are broad opportunities within the orbital services market segment, including life extension, robotics, salvage, Space Situational Awareness (SSA), de-orbiting, and relocation. Our Orbital Services business unit is being built to promote ancillary services, including satellite servicing and refueling, space station servicing, satellite repositioning, and orbital debris removal. We believe that deploying and supporting satellites in certain unique Earth orbits will allow us to optimize this market. Our Business Units, Products and Services We are a premier provider and supplier of space products and services that we believe will enable sustained robotic and human exploration to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Our core technologies underpin our capabilities in four business units: Lunar Access Services, Orbital Services, Lunar Data Services and Space Products and Infrastructure. We expect to achieve leading time to market across these business lines driven by our short design to manufacture process, enabled through vertical integration and rapidly iterative testing. This has been demonstrated with our GN&C and propulsion systems, which have passed multiple validation tests in preparation for our first lunar mission as well as our operational lunar data network. These technologies can be leveraged to capture orbital services and we expect successful lunar landings will demonstrate our capability as an agile space company, supporting our continued expansion into Space Products and Infrastructure. Lunar Access Services We intend to utilize our proprietarily developed lunar lander vehicles to service CLPS contracts to fly NASA scientific equipment and commercial cargo to the lunar surface and support experiments. Our Nova-C lander flying on IM-1 is designed to be the first U.S. vehicle to softly land on the lunar surface since 1972. Powered by our VR900 engine, and replete with innovative avionics for advanced guidance, navigation and control, IM-1 is capable of carrying up to 130 kilograms of cargo, and is intended to ferry numerous experiments to the lunar surface in 2023. IM-2 is intended to succeed IM-1 as our second flight, as we attempt to make it the first object in human history to land at the South Pole of the Moon and deploy the Moon’s first drill to test for water ice, while also deploying our micro-Nova “hopper” — a drone to test the Nokia LTE network in space. The workhorse of the Nova-C lander is the VR900 LOX/Methane engine, which is a fully additively manufactured (3D printed) rocket engine, which we designed and manufacture in-house. Building off the solid framework of our Nova-C lander systems and structures, we have designed a scalable path for the development and construction of additional vehicles. Nova-D, thanks to its two VR900 engines and stretched tanks, will have a projected payload capacity of 500-750 kilograms and has completed System Definition Review (SDR). Our largest lander, the Nova-M, will rely on its two VR3500 engines to carry approximately 5,000-7,500 kilograms of payload to the lunar surface. Nova-M is a future development effort. These options are designed to afford flexibility for our customers as we pioneer a thriving, diverse lunar economy and enable a permanent presence on the Moon. Importantly, they are also all based on the same LOX/Methane engine, which is designed and manufactured in-house. 2 We also offer lunar surface mobility through the µNova. The µNova is a small robotic, deployable spacecraft that is designed to provide a novel type of mobility to reach extreme lunar environments, such as pits and craters. Acting as a payload on a lander like the Nova-C, µNova deploys once on the lunar surface and uses its own propulsion system to autonomously fly, or “hop,” between locations of interest. Capable of traveling up to 25 kilometers from its host lander with a payload of 5 kilograms, µNova enables a number of mission types, including regional surveys, prospecting of multiple dispersed sites, and accessing hard-to-reach locations like permanently shadowed regions, lunar pits, and craters. The technology is also designed to be scalable to provide similar access for larger payloads over a longer distance. The first µNova is intended to fly to the Moon on IM-2 and perform a demonstration mission at the lunar South Pole for the NASA Tipping Point program. As of December 31, 2022, the contracted value of our Lunar Access Services business unit includes $289.0 million of NASA CLPS and Tipping Point contracts and $56.8 million of commercial payloads contracted on IM-1, IM-2, and IM-3. In addition, as of December 31, 2022, we have $1.6 million in commercial sponsorships and content sales, which provides us with another source of revenue outside of our core operations. Our three lunar missions are contracted to fly on SpaceX’s Falcon 9. This mission profile primes the market to expect an annual cadence of lunar access missions so customers can begin to prepare their payloads and business cases now for future missions. Revenue streams from lunar access are expected to include a lunar rocket-fueled drone (µNova), lunar surface rover services, fixed lunar surface services, lunar orbit delivery services, rideshare delivery services to lunar orbit, and content sales and marketing sponsorships. Orbital Services We will be operating missions and are currently developing technologies that are designed to enable services including satellite delivery and rideshare, satellite servicing and refueling, space station servicing, satellite repositioning, and orbital debris removal. Our Orbital Services segment is designed to mainly support satellites and stations in Earth and lunar orbits. Our Orbital Services consists of leveraging our technologies and government funds to establish a foothold in capturing the growing orbital services market. The technologies we are working to leverage include mechanism and robotics capabilities, propulsion, Nova-C optical navigation, and rendezvous and proximity operations, and satellite capture. We have made significant progress to date in orbital services through four major milestones. First, we on-boarded a satellite services team in order to add a world-class mechanisms/robotics team onto our Rendezvous Proximity Operations and Capture (“RPOC”). We also signed a $6.0 million Commercial RPOC contract with Axiom Space. Third, we have actively engaged in policy development for Active Debris Removal Funding and license two NASA Active Debris Removal patents pursuant to the In-License Agreement. Lastly, we have three rideshare contracts across IM-2 and IM-3 collectively worth $18.45 million, with several others in discussion. We are also pursuing two main strategic pursuits. We are pursuing a $720.0 million prime engineering contract to lead the NASA Landsat Servicing mission as well as a pursuit to work with National Security Space in order to leverage domain expertise for demonstrations of orbital servicing, debris removal, rideshares, and Space Domain Awareness. Lunar Data Services We intend to leverage our six strategically positioned ground stations across Earth to offer continuous lunar coverage, facilitating secure lunar communications, navigation, and imagery. Providing Lunar Data Services is designed to allow us to provide lunar network services to NASA, the U.S. Space Force and commercial clients, which we believe will be an increasingly important priority given China’s recent declaration that they intend to build their own lunar satellite network. We believe that we are one of the few companies capable of providing a commercial lunar communication network as an alternative to NASA’s aging and overtasked Deep Space Network (DSN) assets, which we believe will allow connectivity with the far side of the Moon and support robotic and human missions to the South Pole of the Moon. We are designing and building the required critical infrastructure and have existing agreements with global ground stations to provide coverage of the Moon. We believe that our Lunar Data Services offering is made up of a validated and complete lunar communications solution. Our network consists of our Nova Control Lunar Operations Center, our global collection of dishes called the Lunar Telemetry, Tracking and Communications Network (“LTN”), and the Cislunar Relay Constellation (Khon Satellites comprising our Khonstellation). Our network is secured by IronNet cybersecurity. In addition to our own LTN, we have our own control center located at our headquarters in Houston, Texas. Built from the ground up by our highly experienced team, Nova Control enables collaboration, innovation and seamless operations, in this 24-hour facility that was designed to provide tracking, telemetry and communications support for cislunar space and the surface of the Moon. Our lunar network can provide line of sight communication, and will provide lunar South Pole and far-side coverage, lunar positioning services (GPS for the Moon), data relay, and data storage/caching. 3 Space Products and Infrastructure This segment includes propulsion systems, navigation systems, engineering services contracts, lunar mobility vehicles (rovers and drones), power infrastructure (Fission Surface Power), and human habitation systems. With extensive manufacturing capabilities, an in-house composites shop, and robust machine shop, we are able to find solutions for the prototyping or production challenges our customers face. Intuitive Machines’ manufacturing facility currently houses two EOS M290 manufacturing machines capable of creating manufactured parts in several characterized materials, including Inconel (IN625) and Titanium (Ti64). Our facility also houses the IM 3D design studio and post processing facilities that enhance development of in-house, manufactured parts. With these capabilities, we are positioning ourselves to rapidly manufacture on-demand prototypes, development parts, flight units and spares with a focus on producing small series and high-quality serial productions of metal manufactured components. We also have rich experience and unique capabilities with engines, ignitors, controllers, encoders, gimbals, and diverse test facilities that allow us to rapidly develop propulsion systems. In a recent example, in February 2020, we successfully test-fired our VR3500 Moon lander engine for over 600 seconds, breaking the continuous test duration record on Marshall Space Flight Center’s Test Stand 115 — within four months from contract award. Our LOX/Methane engines are unique for in-space propulsion, in that they have demonstrated safety in handling and testing here on the ground, as well as reliable performance in space, and will enable our vehicles to fly more direct trajectories to the Moon. This is important because higher performance allows us to transit the Van Allen belt once compared to lower thrust systems which require several transits, which greatly reduces the risk of damage to our vehicle avionics due to high energy particles (radiation). The workhorse of our engine fleet is the 900lbf thrust class VR900. This engine has undergone hundreds of hours of testing and design, and will be used in our Nova-C lander as it returns the United States to the lunar surface. We also have engineered the VR3500 Engine. The VR3500 development and testing was performed on contract for Boeing’s Human Landing System (HLS) NextSTEP-2 in support of NASA’s Artemis program to return humans to the lunar surface. Our team designed, developed, built, and tested the engine within four months of contract award. This is an example of how our team combines innovation and experience to rapidly deliver results. Our broad experience in automated systems includes avionics, communications, navigation, guidance and control systems, rendezvous and proximity operations, synthetic perception technology and human-machine interfaces. Specifically, our team brings extensive experience from NASA’s Morpheus and ALHAT (Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology) projects and the efforts of the Precision Landing and Hazard Avoidance (“PLHA”) community. We helped validate the Natural Feature Tracking (NFT) system for the OSIRIS-REx mission, which enabled precision landing on the asteroid Bennu. We have developed a PLHA system with Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) using optical and laser measurements for precise and safe landing on a celestial body. We continue to mature our PLHA technology with the support of a nationwide academic network for incorporation into our Nova-C missions to the lunar surface in 2023. We employ some of the industry’s most advanced software tools and processes to rapidly evolve and meet the complex and dynamic demands of our customers, and to build robust software solutions to ensure mission success. Concepts such as Agile software development, DevOps, and Digital Twins allows us to efficiently adapt our software to what is needed. From Low Earth Orbit to the lunar surface, we are capable of delivering complete mission solutions. Our Customers and Partners We are an integral partner to our customers and partners. We execute on our commitments and develop solutions for our customers’ toughest challenges. Our customers include, but are not limited to: NASA, Nokia Corporation, Columbia Sportswear Company, Aegis Aerospace, Inc., SpaceFlight Inc., KBR, Inc., Boeing Airplane & Transport Corporation, AstroForge and others. We execute on our commitments and develop solutions for our customers’ toughest challenges. We also have premiere partners in the industry including: ● X-energy. X-energy is a nuclear reactor and fuel design engineering company, developing Generation IV high-temperature gas cooled nuclear reactors and TRISO-X fuel to power them. We have partnered with them in a joint venture in the pursuit of nuclear space propulsion and surface power systems in support of future exploration goals, and have received one of three awards from NASA to design a 40kW fission surface power system for the lunar surface. Intuitive Machines and X-energy are currently executing the fission surface power design contract through a joint venture called IX, LLC. Dr. Kamal Ghaffarian, our co-founder and executive chairman, is a co-founder and current member of management of X-energy. ● Axiom Space. We partnered with Axiom Space to provide guidance, navigation and control, including rendezvous and proximity operations expertise for their space station. We are also partnered to support their development of the next generation spacesuit under the xEVAS program. Axiom Space is also our customer. Dr. Kamal Ghaffarian, our co-founder and executive chairman, is a co-founder and current member of management of Axiom Space. 4 ● NASA. Intuitive Machines is partnered with NASA and services NASA through three missions to date under their CLPS contract program. We work to provide NASA with access to the lunar surface as well as cislunar data for science, technology, and infrastructure. The IM-2 mission is also contracted by NASA and will be the first spacecraft to drill for lunar ice. The mission will also be a part of NASA’s Tipping Point with the µNova Hopper. ● KBR. KBR, Inc. (“KBR”) is a U.S.-based science, technology and engineering firm. In the ordinary course of business, we regularly provide engineering services to KBR. KBR also owns a 10% interest in Space Network Solutions (“SNS”), one of our operating subsidiaries. The SNS joint venture is pursuing the OMES contract to conduct servicing of NASA’s LandSat-7. ● Jacobs. Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (“Jacobs”) is a U.S.-based technical, engineering and science firm that provides services for a broad range of clients globally including companies, organizations, and government agencies. We have partnered with Jacobs under a teaming agreement and subcontract for NASA’s JSC Engineering, Technology, and Science program (“JETS Program”). Our Competitive Position We believe we are well positioned to become a leading player in a fast growing market. Our competitive strengths include: ● First Mover Advantage: We are a first mover in a new category with an untapped addressable market of $119 billion, according to Northern Sky Research’s 2022 Moon Markets and Earth Orbital Services Market Analysis reports. Intuitive Machines is a nine-year-old lunar services company and is in the leading position in NASA’s return to the Moon with over $86.6 million in 2022 fiscal year revenues. We believe we are also a first mover in lunar transport and communications systems. We also believe that we have an established, highly defensible, and scalable technology position providing lunar transport, landing, and data relay services. ● Contracting TAM Well Beyond NASA: The accessible total addressable market for Intuitive Machines is approximately $120.0 billion over the next decade. Our total addressable market includes Department of Defense and Space Force spending, along with spending by the U.S. intelligence community, which have prioritized the Moon via strong bipartisan support, especially given recent geopolitical developments and the race to space from Russia and China. Intuitive Machines’ total addressable market is underpinned by large end markets, including space exploration, national security space, and commercial satellite services. ● Differentiated Technology Offering: We have innovated key technology and lunar features and capabilities, including: LOX and Methane Propulsion, Optical NAV System, Lunar Communications, RE-Entry and Landing, RPO and Capture and Extreme Surface Mobility. ● High Quality Business Model: We have significant intellectual property assets and high return on invested capital at scale with a durable growth trajectory and margin expansion in a non-cyclical sector. We are growing rapidly from $8 million in revenue in 2018 to $86.6 million in revenue in 2022, and with approximately $142.1 million in 2023 revenues already contracted, with the expectation and belief that we will continue to secure sizeable near-term awards in the near future. Our revenue is expected to transition from government contracts to commercial services sales through successful missions showcasing capabilities as the cislunar economy develops and as we mature as a company. ● World-class Management Team: Our management team possesses a valuable combination of experience and vision. In addition to their technical knowledge, our team has extensive experience operating and leading companies and a strong track-record of building market making businesses. Our Growth Strategy We are pursuing the following growth strategies: Continuing to build on first mover advantage in lunar transport: We are a company of firsts. Our first mission is IM-1, which is intended to be the first commercial lander on the Moon and the first U.S. lander on the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Our second mission for IM-2 is also being designed to achieve a multitude of firsts: first lander on the lunar south pole, first to drill for water ice on the Moon, first to develop and operate a lunar hopper in history, and first to deploy a data relay satellite in lunar orbit. Some of our other firsts from missions and accomplishments include: first to work with a commercial partner to deliver lunar payloads, first to establish a commercial lunar and deep space communications network, and first to partner with JSC Astro-Materials Curations Office to certify lunar material. We also intend to continue to build on our first mover advantage gained through these accomplishments and leverage them into positions on new contracts in the future. Building out capabilities and pursuing opportunities in adjacent lunar markets: We intend to scale and expand our existing capabilities in order to provide a complete suite of lunar economy services. This offering is designed to include products and services critical to Commercial Landers, Lunar Data Services, Crewed Lunar Missions, Lunar Transportation Services, Lunar Power Services, and Lunar Habitats. 5 Pursuing orbital services opportunities: We intend to leverage our technologies and government funds to establish a foothold in the orbital services market. Some of our key technologies, such as robotics, Nova-C optical navigation and RPOC, and satellite capture, have enabled key progress towards this aim to date. This progress includes a commercial space station contract in-hand with Axiom Space, rideshare contracts in hand for IM-2, and two licensed NASA active debris removal patents. Going forward, we intend to pursue the $720.0 million Prime Engineering Contract to lead the NASA mission to service LandSat-7 as well as other national security-related contracts. Leveraging capabilities in commercial lunar and satellite services market: We plan to leverage government contract success to build a commercial customer base and develop the industry partnerships required for our next phase of growth. Leveraging these government contracts as well as our differentiated capabilities will allow us to establish a foothold in the emerging satellite servicing market. Our Competition Competition in our addressable market is mainly divided between incumbents, such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin who pursue larger, more complex contracts such as manned lunar missions, and next generation players, including our competitors on the CLPS contract such as Astrobotic and Firefly Aerospace. Our Operations Sales: Our sales organization operates directly and via our extensive customer and partner network, which spans across North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia. Our partner network consists of our rideshare delivery providers, lunar surface mobility providers, payload providers, communication satellite provider, and ground segment providers. The main responsibilities for our sales organization include ensuring contract renewals, maintaining relationships and expanding business with existing customers and partners, and acquiring new customers. We have deep expertise in capture efforts with the government customers, and have established processes to succeed with such customers. We leverage extensive existing relationships as well as our partner network and direct sales efforts to continue to win and grow business with commercial customers. We work closely with our customers and partners to enable their success. Deeper adoption from our customers comes in many forms, including delivery of payloads to lunar orbit and the lunar surface, data and data relay services for users in the lunar vicinity, orbital services, lunar surface infrastructure, and space products and services. Research and Development: Our research and development (“R&D”) team is integrated across our engineering organization to leverage the best engineers within each discipline and prevent stovepipes within our technology, yielding fully integrated systems that reduce time to market. Our R&D scope includes company rollover, acquisition, optimizing capital structure, and general corporate purposes. Our R&D team is also responsible for developing and innovating our proprietary technology platform. We continue to invest in R&D, particularly as it relates to “survive the night” and our larger lander design to make our platform more accessible to a wider range of customers, as well as innovating our space technology to capture various types of data efficiently. Marketing: Our marketing team utilizes a multi-channel approach to develop and increase our brand awareness, position and communicate the value of our differentiated offering, and develop engaging outbound demand-generation campaigns. The team drives our overall market positioning and messaging across our key audiences and vertical markets, as well as provides strategic go-to-market assessments of use cases that emerge from new product capabilities and the market landscape. Our communications team works with targeted industry influencers and media outlets to drive interest through media channels, including blogs, social media, and video. This approach is important for our strategy to capture the entire market opportunity encompassing not only NASA and DoD, but also commercial aerospace and non-traditional customer segments engaged in partnership and content activity, who value brand activation from these engagements. Supply Chain Our ability to manufacture and operate our spacecraft is dependent upon sufficient availability of raw materials and supplied components including avionics, flight computers, radios and electrical power systems. We obtain raw materials and components from suppliers that we believe to be reputable and reliable. We have established and follow internal quality control processes to source suppliers, considering quality, cost, delivery and lead-time. We instill responsibility for quality at the lead level to ensure our suppliers and internally built hardware meet the required quality standards. While we largely source raw materials and components from multiple sources, in some cases raw materials and components are sourced from a limited number of suppliers. In these situations, as we endeavor to diversify our supply chain, we manage this risk through using material requirements planning, including material forecasting and planning, safety stock, and bulk and advance buying with focused efforts on long-lead items. 6 Manufacturing, Assembly and Operations We have an integrated manufacturing facility in Houston, TX and are constructing a state of the art, built to spec manufacturing and operations center on Spaceport Houston for occupancy in the third quarter of 2023. The current manufacturing capability supports R&D, rapid prototyping and flight level hardware in an integrated and disciplined manner applying the correct level of rigor to the appropriate process. We leverage a strong culture of personal accountability to ensure efficiency and world class results of operations within our operations group. We are ASC 9100 certified and adhere to the appropriate quality and process controls on a continuous basis. See “— Facilities ” for further discussion of our new facilities under construction. Human Capital As of December 31, 2022, we had 163 employees throughout our operations. We value technical expertise, original thinking, adaptability, and a willingness to collaborate with our excellent team. While our original workforce is rooted in aerospace, we welcome new perspectives and technology expertise as we grow. As of December 31, 2022, our team has over 25 years average aeronautics and design experience and over 100 years cumulative NASA experience. Additionally, over 60% of our employees have advanced degrees, which we define as degrees obtained beyond an undergraduate level. Intellectual Property The protection of our technology and intellectual property is an important aspect of our business. We rely upon a combination of trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, license agreements, confidentiality procedures, contractual commitments and other legal rights to establish and protect our intellectual property. We enter into confidentiality agreements and invention or work product assignment agreements with our employees and consultants to control access to, and clarify ownership of, our proprietary information. As of December 31, 2022, we license two U.S. patents from Aerospace Corporation. As of December 31, 2022, we hold one registered trademark in the United States. We continually review our development efforts to assess the existence and patentability of new intellectual property. We intend to file patent applications with respect to our technology. Material In-License Agreement : In July 2018, we entered into a Patent and Know-How License for Government Purpose Agreement with Aerospace Corporation to in-license, on a non-exclusive basis, two U.S. patents that are jointly held by Aerospace Corporation, NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (such agreement, the “In-License Agreement”). The patents licensed under the In-License Agreement are entitled “Method for Active Debris Removal Using a Spacecraft with a Capture Device” and “System, Apparatus, and Method for Active Debris Removal.” We license the patents for building and operating an active orbital debris removal system using a spacecraft with a capture device (the “Government Purpose”). Under the In-License Agreement, Aerospace Corporation shall receive copies of any products, data results of testing, observations, and/or evaluations derived from our use of the licensed patents and associated know-how and to any ancillary systems into which the licensed patents and associated know-how may be integrated for the Government Purpose. In addition, Aerospace Corporation, we and any other applicable licensees share the United States Patent and Trademark Office maintenance fees for each licensed patent. The approximate maintenance fee for each licensed patent was $1,600 for the first four licensing years starting from November 2018, $3,600 for the eighth licensing year, and $7,200 for the twelfth licensing year. The In-License Agreement remains in effect until the expiration date of the last patent to expire or the completion of the Government Purpose, whichever occurs first. The estimated expiration date of the licensed patents are October 12, 2032 and April 6, 2033, respectively. Either party may terminate the In-License Agreement at any time without cause upon 30 days’ written notice to the other party. Regulatory Compliance with various governmental regulations has an impact on our business, including our capital expenditures, earnings and competitive position, which can be material. We incur or will incur costs to monitor and take actions to comply with governmental regulations that are or will be applicable to our business, which include, among others, federal securities laws and regulations, applicable stock exchange requirements, export and import control, economic sanctions and trade embargo laws and restrictions and regulations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration (the “FAA”), the Federal Communications Commission (the “FCC”) and other government agencies in the United States. Further, our business is subject to, and we must comply with, stringent U.S. import and export control laws, including the International Trade in Arms Regulations (“ITAR”) administered by the U.S. Department of State and EAR. See Part I. Item 1A. “Risk Factors — Risks Relating to Our Business” for a discussion of material risks to us, including, to the extent material, to our competitive position, relating to governmental regulations. 7 Available Information Our website address is www.intuitivemachines.com. The contents of, or information accessible through, our website are not incorporated by reference herein and are not a part of this Annual Report. We make our filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports, as well as beneficial ownership filings available free of charge on our website under the “Investors” section as soon as reasonably practicable after we file such reports with, or furnish such reports to, the SEC. We may use our website as a distribution channel of material information about us. Financial and other important information regarding the Company is routinely posted on and accessible through the Investors section of our website at www.investors.intuitivemachines.com.