Thursday was an eventful day for America's space industry. 

Let's begin with Intuitive Machines. Shares of the Houston-based spacecraft startup plunged 20% on Thursday, extending losses to as much as 34% in premarket trading after the Athena spacecraft landed on its side, complicating power generation from its solar panels and rendering the mission "off-nominal."

Canaccord Genuity analyst Austin Moeller noted that Intuitive Machines had received roughly 90% of its $120 million contract for the landing. However, some milestone payments depend on the operation of payloads, including a drill to check for water or ice below the lunar surface and the first data center and cellular network on the Moon. 

This is Intuitive Machines' second moon landing attempt. The previous attempt did not go as planned; the IM-1 spacecraft tipped over on its side during a hard landing last year. 

Separately, SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket exploded in low Earth orbit during a test flight, marking its second consecutive failure this year.

However, the Super Heavy first-stage booster successfully returned to Earth as planned and was caught in mid-air by SpaceX's chopsticks crane.

"Unfortunately, this happened last time too, so we've got some practice now," SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said on the live stream.

SpaceX provided color on what went wrong with Starship. 

And will correct it for the next flight. 

Last Sunday, Firefly Aerospace's "Blue Ghost" lander became the first private spacecraft to land on the Moon successfully. 

America's private space industry is heating up. 

Let's not forget: The US leads this race because of Musk's SpaceX, years ahead of the rest of the world (Goldman went bull on Starlink satellite part suppliers last month).

The US plans to send astronauts to the lunar surface in a series of crewed missions by the end of the decade. Musk recently stated that the first Starship mission to Mars would be in two years.

What's the vibe these days? Well... Make Space Great Again.