Space stocks are sliding Friday, led by Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc., which is down 5.4%.
The space tourism company is on pace to extend its losing streak to two days and register its biggest single-day percentage decline since Tuesday, when it fell 7.6%. Virgin Galactic
SPCE,
is currently down 5 of the last six days.
Shares of Intuitive Machines Inc.
LUNR,
which is preparing for the launch of its first commercial lunar lander, are down 2%. The stock is also on pace to extend its losing streak to two days.
Related: Virgin Galactic’s stock rises after Truist upgrade
Intuitive Machines is planning to send its Nova-C lunar lander to the moon atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as early as next month. The IM-1 mission’s launch is targeted for a multi-day launch window that opens no earlier than mid-February, given the monthly lunar blackout period, the company said in a recent update. Nova-C will land near the moon’s South Pole, where the correct lighting conditions are only available for a handful of days every month.
The S&P 500 index
SPX
is up 0.7% Friday while shares of Momentus Inc.
MNTS,
which provides satellite transportation and servicing, are down 2.1%. Shares of Earth-imaging company Planet Labs PBC
PL,
are down 1.9%. The Procure Space ETF
UFO
is down 2.5%.
On Thursday private space company Astrobotic Technology ended its troubled mission to place a lander on the moon when its Peregine spacecraft completed its controlled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. It is thought that the spacecraft burned up over the South Pacific. A propellant leak doomed the lunar landing mission to failure, although Astrobotic was able to turn on all Peregrine’ active payloads and collect data from them.
Related: This space stock is soaring as next commercial moon-landing mission looms
Commercial moon landers are important scouting missions ahead of the return of American astronauts to the lunar surface as part of NASA’s Artemis program. Earlier this month, NASA said that it is now targeting September 2025 for its first crewed Artemis mission around the moon, and September 2026 for its crewed Artemis mission to land astronauts near the lunar South Pole.
Other countries also have their sights on the moon. On Friday Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, reached the lunar surface although the Associated Press reports that scientists are now checking the probe’s status to see if the landing was successful.
Virgin Galactic shares are down 64.6% in the last 52 weeks, while Intuitive Machines is down 75%. Momentus shares are down 98.4% over that period, while Planet Lab shares have fallen 58.8%. The S&P 500 index is up 21.2% in the last 52 weeks.
