🚀 Astra Deploys Customer Payloads

🚀 Astra Deploys Customer Payloads

March 18, 2022

The Space Scoop

Week Ending 03.18.2022

Happy Friday! A volatile week on Wall Street led to a strong rally in beaten down Space SPAC names, with an average +9.7% move higher. Morgan Stanley remains bullish on Rocket Lab, Astra successfully delivered its first customer payloads to orbit, Space Capital raised a third VC fund and over $200M of capital was raised by startups.

Market Max-Q 📈

Indices:S&P 500: 4,463.11 +6.2%NASDAQ: 13,893.83 +8.2%ETFs:UFO: 25.75 +6.9%ROKT: 40.59 +3.9%ARKX: 17.88 +11.0%SSIT: 104.2 -3.0%Weekly Movers:ARQQ: 17.54 +37.9%MNTS: 2.60 +30.0%SPCE: 9.43 +29.5%SIDU: 3.48 -9.2%

Top Stories 🚀 

Morgan Stanley Reiterates Rocket Lab Buy Rating

On Monday morning, Morgan Stanley reiterated its 'Buy' rating on Rocket Lab ($RKLB) with the company's momentum said to be continuing this year with backlog more than doubling in two months. Analyst Kristine Liwag said the award to build 17 satellite buses as a subcontractor to $MDA for Globalstar’s ($GSAT) LEO constellation "underscores" the value of the company's recent M&A activity. "We still see the possibility for the company’s attempt at mid-air booster retrieval via helicopter to occur in Q1'22, which could serve as a meaningful catalyst for the stock, as a successful retrieval would represent a significant milestone along the journey towards increasing rocket reusability." Morgan Stanley maintains its $17.00 price target. Shares finished the day +1.7% higher.

Space Capital Raises Third Venture Capital Fund

Space Capital, a seed stage space VC firm, successfully closed a $32M second institutional fund - Space Capital II. This is their third fund overall, now managing over $100M in assets. With the new capital, the firm plans to continue leading seed rounds and supporting companies through Series A. The firms' thesis is focused on unlocking the value in space technology stacks such as GPS, geospatial intelligence, and communications.

Astra & Spaceflight Announce Multi-Launch Contract

On Monday, Spaceflight, the end-to-end mission management service company, expanded its launch partner offering portfolio with $ASTR. The partnership offers a consistent stream of satellite customers seeking launches to Astra, providing flight opportunities through 2025. The following day, Astra's Rocket 3.3 successfully launched several Spaceflight payloads into low Earth orbit for NearSpace Launch, Portland State Aerospace Society and an undisclosed customer. Shares closed the day -0.6% lower after a volatile session that included the halting of shares.

MDA Reports FY2021 Earnings

• Order bookings of $767.9M, +50% YoY increase.• Backlog of $864.3M (as of 12/31).• Revenues of $476.9M, +16% YoY driven by improved program performance / backlog execution.• Gross profit of $167.8M, +43% YoY, with gross margin of 35% compared to 29% in 2020.• EBITDA grew to $123.3M vs. to $65.7M in 2020.• Hired 670 personnel and staff in 2021.• Shares rose +8.4% on the news.

Telesat Reports FY2021 Earnings

• Consol. revenue of $758M, -7.5% YoY.• OpEx increased to $234M, +29.4% YoY.• Adj. EBITDA of $603M, -7.6% YoY.• Adj. EBITDA margin was 79.6%.• Net Income of $158M, -35.7% YoY.• Contracted backlog of ~$2.1B (as of 12/31).• Shares traded +6.6% higher.

In Other News 🛰️ 

Arkisys Investment Opportunity 

The space outpost startup, has recently launched a Regulation CF raise at a $14.1M pre-money valuation. The company aims to be an infrastructure-as-a-service platform for new technology hosting, satellite integration, assembly and resupply. 

Synthetaic Raises $13M Series A Round 

Lupa Systems led the round in the AI and Rapid Automatic Image Categorization (RAIC) startup, with TitleTown Tech, Betaworks, Booz Allen Hamilton and Esri participating. The capital will help grow its team and scale its cloud and generative AI tech.

Kymeta Raises Additional $84M Funding 

The flat panel mobile antenna startup's equity funding was led by Bill Gates, with participation from Hanwha Systems and others. The investment will be used to accelerate production as it prepares to expand to LEO and defense customers.

Celestia Aerospace Closes €100M Seed Round 

Invema Group led the round in the Barcelona-based orbital solutions startup. With the capital, Celestia will build a nanosatellite production center for earth observation and secure communications constellations.

SCOUT Space Raises Bridge Financing Round 

The in-space observation data startup closed a bridge round led by Decisive Point while it raises seed financing. Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation and Geospatial Alpha also participated. Valuation and capital were not disclosed. To date, SCOUT has raised $1.5M.

Quick Links 🔗

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Why Starship Is the Holy Grail for SpaceX

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Elon Musk Says Tesla, SpaceX Facing ‘Significant’ Inflationary Pressure

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Orbit Fab Awarded $12M AFWERX STRATFI To Integrate RAFTI Onto DoD Assets

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ICEYE and Fermat Capital Management Enter Strategic Alliance

• Terran Orbital ($TWNT) Subsidiary Awarded Contract by Lockheed Martin ($LMT) To Build 42 Satellites for the SDA’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer

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EchoStar ($SATS) Director Buys $500K Worth of Shares

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Spire ($SPIR) Announces Space-as-a-Service Contract With NorthStar Earth & Space

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Poland To Advance Domestic Space Capabilities With Virgin Orbit ($VORB)

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Tomorrow.io Weather Satellites Pass Critical Design Review

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Astra ($ASTR) Reschedules Q4 / FY2021 Financial Results to March 31st

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Sierra Space Signs MoU With Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for Orbital Reef

Opinion 🗣️

• Why Laser Communications Is the Future of NewSpace• Virgin Galactic ($SPCE): Is Now the Time To Buy?• Astra ($ASTR): 2022 is a Pivotal Year for Revenues and New Launches• Three Emerging Trends in the Space Industry• Can Space Stocks Achieve Liftoff Once More? We Consider Rocket Lab ($RKLB)

Calendar 📅

• $TWNT: March 22 - Merger Vote• $VORB: March 29 - After Market Close• $ASTR: March 31 - After Market Close• $PL: March 31 - After Market Close

*Company confirmed dates only.

Chart of the Week 📊

Virgin Galactic ($SPCE) hit an all-time-low this week, trading down to $6.70 per share. It didn't last long as it then rallied +40.9% into Friday afternoon. Shares are down -30.3% YTD.