Steve Altemus

Co-founder & CEO, Intuitive Machines · 1 appearance on the record.

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Steve Altemus leads Intuitive Machines, a space exploration company that completed the first commercial spacecraft landing on the Moon with its Odysseus lander. Before co-founding Intuitive Machines in 2013, he spent over two decades at NASA, serving as Director of Engineering and Deputy Director of the Johnson Space Center.

13statements → 7claims → 6claims resolved → 50%fully supported → 3.85/5average certainty → 1.69/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

3 supported 3 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed how the 7 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 6 assertions · 1 opinion · 5 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 7 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 6 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Steve argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported

Altemus: Artemis Accords permit commercial companies to own lunar samples

“So if you land on the moon, you can bring back samples and own those samples per the Artemis Accords. It's not where they belong to the sovereign governments. They can belong to commercial companies.”

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 24:05 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1

none yet certainty 2

none yet certainty 3

79% certainty 4

100% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Steve Altemus on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

What they said13 Episodes1

Everything Steve Altemus said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Prediction Open · timeframe Jan 2030

Altemus: Humans will not return to the Moon until 2030

“And so I think it's twenty-thirty before we see boots on the moon.”

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 33:08 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Opinion

Altemus: Lunar mining can become a commercial alternative to terrestrial strip-mining

“At the rate that we consume rare earth minerals and materials, we now have pristine areas that would have to be strip mined to find the last bastion of materials that we're looking for. We don't want to do that. We don't want to destroy our earth. So if there'…”

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 15:11 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Disclosure

Altemus: Intuitive Machines charges roughly $1M per kilogram for lunar payloads

“We can charge roughly a million dollars a kilogram to take those payloads to the moon, whether that's a government payload or commercial payload. So if you can do that, that's roughly a hundred million dollars plus of revenue that you can generate with each mi…”

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 21:44 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Disclosure

Altemus: Intuitive Machines will survive even if its first lander fails

“We have three missions to the moon. Failure is likely like you indicated. We have now three shots at the moon, so we are not a company that builds one lander, and if it succeeds, we're successful. If it fails, we go under. We have diversified revenue streams. …”

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 34:34 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Assertion Partly supported

Altemus: US declared Moon strategic interest in 2018 to counter China

“Where it turned, Guy, was in 2018 the National Security Council and the National Space Council declared that the moon was now of strategic interest. China was coming on strong, and the U.S. Needed to set the norms and behaviors of how we live in space. And wor…”

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 7:27 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Assertion Supported

Altemus: Artemis Accords permit commercial companies to own lunar samples

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 24:05 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Assertion Supported

Altemus: Lunar landings establish heritage site coordination, not land ownership

“You land, you own what they call a heritage site. And that means other countries or other companies that want to fly near you, if you're declared as a heritage site, need to coordinate with you before they land and damage any of the equipment that you have the…”

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 24:50 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Assertion Partly supported

Altemus: NASA team flew lunar lander test bed 37 times at KSC

“We went ahead and built a lunar lander test bed for, to flying on earth, and we built a walking robot. We flew the walking robot to space station and we flew the lander by itself about 37 times, successfully launched it from Earth and landed it on a simulated …”

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 3:10 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Disclosure

Altemus: Intuitive Machines had single-digit millions in revenue before lunar pivot

“And we were kind of, you know bouncing on the bottom somewhat, you know, single digit millions revenue not really gaining traction with any of the inventions.”

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 6:54 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Assertion Partly supported

Altemus: Humanity has only returned 360 kilograms of lunar material

“For all of the moon rocks that we brought back in the history of humanity, there's only 360 kilograms of material.”

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 9:59 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Disclosure

Altemus: Intuitive Machines 3D-prints its rocket engines at Spaceport Houston

“We actually additively manufacture or three D print our own engines. And then we test them right here. We're on Spaceport Houston, the Ellington airport.”

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 18:20 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Disclosure

Altemus: SpaceX scheduled Intuitive Machines lunar launch for January 12, 2024

“So SpaceX has given us a launch date for January 12th of 2024. We have a five day window to get off. There's only a certain amount of days per month that you can fly to the moon where it's in the right position to where we can land at our designated landing si…”

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 26:31 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Assertion Supported

Altemus: Only India and China have successfully landed on the Moon recently

“The very recent history, it's only been India and China. India being the latest and the, and you saw the recent Russian mission to the moon failed on the way.”

Steve Altemus Dec 21, 2023 ▶ 15:53 Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
Shooting for the moon with Steve Altemus of Intuitive Machines	Dec 21, 2023	21m

Steve Altemus

The record, in short

Their most notable supported claim

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

How they sound: not measured why? →

Appearances (1)

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