Moon Express loses lawsuit by subcontractor
Capitalism in space: Moon Express has lost a lawsuit by one of its subcontractors, who had claimed it had ceased work because the former Google Lunar X-Prize finalist had failed to pay for its work.
Intuitive Machines further claimed that Moon Express’s failure to pay harmed its business. The jury found in favor of Intuitive Machines and awarded the company $1.125 million in cash and $2.5 million in Moon Express equity related to the flight software claim. The jury also awarded Intuitive Machines $732,000 related to its work on the terrestrial return vehicle.
The importance of this story is that it suggests that Moon Express lacks sufficient capital to do what it claims. The decision further robs it of more capital.
Now it could be that Moon Express stopped paying because Intuitive Machines was not delivering good product, as Moon Express claims. The jury did not agree with this claim, however. I do wonder if the jury was sufficiently educated about the product itself.
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Capitalism in space: Moon Express has lost a lawsuit by one of its subcontractors, who had claimed it had ceased work because the former Google Lunar X-Prize finalist had failed to pay for its work.
Intuitive Machines further claimed that Moon Express’s failure to pay harmed its business. The jury found in favor of Intuitive Machines and awarded the company $1.125 million in cash and $2.5 million in Moon Express equity related to the flight software claim. The jury also awarded Intuitive Machines $732,000 related to its work on the terrestrial return vehicle.
The importance of this story is that it suggests that Moon Express lacks sufficient capital to do what it claims. The decision further robs it of more capital.
Now it could be that Moon Express stopped paying because Intuitive Machines was not delivering good product, as Moon Express claims. The jury did not agree with this claim, however. I do wonder if the jury was sufficiently educated about the product itself.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Oh, the irony. The jury awards a possibly bankrupting amount and also awards an equity award, valuable only if the company does not file bankruptcy. Now it is in the interest of Intuitive Machines for Moon Express to stay solvent and be successful.
Funny they just laid off 90% of their engineering staff according to indeed reviews
This article offers raises some good questions but misconstrues some of the facts about our lawsuit against Intuitive Machines. We offer the following corrections / clarifications to statements made:
1) “Moon Express loses lawsuit by subcontractor”: Moon Express is the plaintiff in this (ongoing) lawsuit; Intuitive Machines is the Defendant. WE sued Intuitive Machine for breach of contract for non-delivery of obligated deliverables after paying them over $3M. We believe the jury did indeed get it wrong, and in the article cited, we state this and that we would be appealing the decision (which we are doing). Since the lawsuit is still being litigated, we assert that we haven’t “lost”, and we believe justice will ultimately prevail through our appeal.
[Publicly available court documents show that Intuitive Machines offered Moon Express a cash settlement of $750K prior to the trial, suggesting that even IM believed they were in the wrong and didn’t expect the results of the jury verdict].
2) “The importance of this story is that it suggests that Moon Express lacks sufficient capital to do what it claims.” We paid Intuitive Machines over $3M in contract payments in the course of 8 months. The publicly available court docs show that we held two payments totaling ~$500K for non-delivery of products required by the contract, but only after we provided notices of none-compliance detailing their failures to deliver the required products. We unfortunately had to resort to suing them after their continued failure to remedy. The issue was not our ability to continue paying, it was about Intuitive Machine not delivering.
3) “The decision further robs it of more capital.” Our lawsuit against Intuitive Machines is still under litigation and Moon Express has not paid a penny to Intuitive Machines. As the article cited states, we are appealing the jury’s verdict, and we believe a higher court will agree that we are the victim and that justice will ultimately prevail.
We hope these clarifications are helpful to set the record straight.
Moon Express, Inc.
Moon Express PR: Thank you for the clarifications. Very helpful.