After the space exploration company said that communications with its Odysseus moon lander, which had fallen onto its side, are anticipated to end on Tuesday, shares of Intuitive Machines (LUNR.O), opens new tab, fell sharply on Monday.

According to an update on the mission’s status provided by the corporation, flight controllers will stay in contact with Odysseus until Tuesday morning, effectively ending the mission five days after it has touched down.

With the exception of one, all six of the Houston-based company’s NASA science and technology payloads were oriented skyward and ready for communication upon landing on the moon, making it the first commercial company to do so since 1972.

According to Intuitive Machines, the payload that had tipped sideways included an artwork made up of tiny stainless steel sculptures by artist Jeff Koons. The company also stated that the remaining payloads are anticipated to fulfill their scientific missions.

Monday’s 35% decline in Intuitive to $6.27 more than negated Friday’s gains of almost 99 million shares trading hands.

LSEG data shows that on Friday, the total amount of traded shares exceeded the company’s market value of around $960 million, coming in at $1.01 billion.

Just 18% of the company’s stock is accessible for trading, making its shares—which went public around a year earlier—vulnerable to significant levels of volatility.

Analytics firm S3 Partners reports that short interest in the stock is 13.7% of free float and that desire to short the stock has been steadily increasing in 2024.

The shares of Intuitive Machines were also among the most popular tickers on the Stocktwits retail trading forum.

“There is a lot of retail activity driving volatility in the stock right now, and probably shorting associated with that … would be helpful to get more color on the reliability of (moon lander) comms,” Austin Moeller, a Canaccord Genuity analyst, said.