{"title":"Astrobotic vs Intuitive Machines: Landers, rovers & surface transport compared","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/compare/astrobotic-vs-intuitive-machines","comparison":"Intuitive Machines ranks 15 on the Space 100 with a score of 82; Astrobotic ranks 73 with 68. Intuitive Machines is ahead on deployment, production, commercials, progress, technology, positioning and firepower. Level on leverage. Astrobotic is based in Pittsburgh, United States, Intuitive Machines in Houston, United States. Astrobotic: Private, founded 2007. Intuitive Machines: Public, founded 2013. Astrobotic is named in 67 signals and Intuitive Machines in 38.","companies":[{"name":"Astrobotic","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/astrobotic","city":"Pittsburgh","country":"United States","stage":"Private","founded":2007,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Astrobotic is a US lunar-logistics company (now a Voyager subsidiary after a July 2026 acquisition of up to $300M) with >$600M in cumulative NASA and DoD contracts, whose Peregrine-1 became America's first commercial lunar lander in space in January 2024 (a propellant anomaly prevented landing). It continues the Griffin lander plus lunar power infrastructure (LunaGrid) and rovers, and won two new CLPS task orders in June 2026 (Peregrine-2 and Peregrine-3 to the Gruithuisen Domes by end-2028), NASA's confidence restatement after the Peregrine-1 failure. Its IP is being consolidated into Voyager's Moon Base strategic initiative.","assessed_in":{"domain":"Space","list":"Space 100","rank":73,"score":68,"tier":"member","scores":{"gate_ne":["firepower"],"leverage":6,"position":6,"progress":9,"firepower":8,"commercial":7,"deployment":8,"production":4,"technology":6},"why":"Astrobotic builds and operates lunar landers, including Peregrine and Griffin-1, to deliver NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon.","segment":"Landers, rovers & surface transport","layer":"Planetary economy"},"signals_total":67,"facts_total":194},{"name":"Intuitive Machines","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/intuitive-machines","city":"Houston","country":"United States","stage":"Public","founded":2013,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Intuitive Machines is a US lunar-services company (Nasdaq) whose IM-1 was the first commercial lunar landing (February 2024), with IM-3 through IM-6 in the pipeline, posting record Q2-26 revenue of $206.2M (>4x YoY) and FY26 guidance of $900M-1B (adjusted-EBITDA positive but still GAAP loss-making). Its backlog jumped to $1.8B (8.5x in six months) largely through four acquisitions, and it received an ATP on a $600M+ multi-satellite communications program, though much of its headline growth is acquired (the Lanteris deal) rather than organic. It is acquiring Maxar (pending), which would transform it from lunar services into a bus manufacturer and orbital-data-center player.","assessed_in":{"domain":"Space","list":"Space 100","rank":15,"score":82,"tier":"member","scores":{"leverage":6,"position":8,"progress":10,"firepower":9,"commercial":10,"deployment":9,"production":6,"technology":8},"why":"Intuitive Machines builds and operates lunar landers that deliver NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon's surface.","segment":"Landers, rovers & surface transport","layer":"Planetary economy"},"signals_total":38,"facts_total":195}],"note":"Assessment by Frontier Tech Intelligence; facts and signals carry their sources."}