🚀 Virgin Orbit's Lifeline

🚀 Virgin Orbit's Lifeline

The Space Scoop

Week Ended 03.24.2023

Happy Friday! This week Virgin Orbit avoided bankruptcy, Terran Orbital and MDA reported FY 2022 earnings, Rocket Lab launched Electron twice within a seven day window and more. Lets dive in.

Market Max-Q

Top Stories

1) Virgin Orbit ($VORB) avoided bankruptcy and found an investor with a $200M capital commitment.

  • It's been a rollercoaster of a week for VORB. Last week, the company announced an operations pause and furlough of nearly all employees while it began preparing bankruptcy petitions and seeking funding at the same time. 

  • Come Wednesday morning, Reuters released the scoop that Richard Branson's company found an investor: little known VC-investor Matthew Brown via private share placement.

  • Now the controlling stake of the Company, Matthew appeared on CNBC on Thursday to discuss his reasoning. Shares fell -41% last week, rallied +33% on the news and closed the week +24% higher. Lets see what the future brings for a once $3B SPAC..

 2) NewSpace earnings continued this with Terran Orbital and MDA reporting Q4 / FY2022 results. Highlights include:

  • $LLAP

    • Revenue: $94M, +130% YoY

    • Net Loss: $(160)M) vs. $(139M)

    • Adj. EBITDA: $(70)M vs. $(26)M

    • Backlog: $171M, +131% YoY

    • Shares: -7.5%

  • $MDA

    • Revenue: $641M, +34% YoY

    • Adj. EBITDA: $158M, +15% YoY

    • Net Income: $26M, +807% YoY

    • Bookings: $1.2B, +50% YoY

    • Shares: +2.5%

In Other News

SpaceX Raising “Multi-Billion” Funding Round 

According to source familiar with investor discussions, the company is gathering investor interest in a new funding round. Sources note that a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s investment fund and an Abu Dhabi investment firm are planning to invest in round. More to come.

Frontier Aerospace Raises $10M Series A Funding from AEI HorizonX 

The liquid rocket engines for in-space propulsion startup raised the capital from VC platform associated with PE firm AE Industrial Partners and Boeing ($BA). The funding will accelerate engine development activities, support major expansion of manufacturing and vacuum test facilities.

ATL Partners Forms Lightridge Solutions 

The PE firm announced the formation of LightRidge on Monday, which is focused on "development, design and production of small, affordable, high-performance space and airborne sensors and payloads for vital national security needs." LightRidge is comprised of of GEOST (acquired in 2021) and Ophir Corporation (acquired in 2022).

Chart of the Week

Virgin Orbit: Deja vu? Nope. Our friend $VORB is back in the spotlight this week after finding a buyer for $200M in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Shares rallied +33% on the news in a volatile week.

Links

• Sidus ($SIDU) To Power Advanced Maritime Solutions With New AIS Integration in LizzieSat Constellation• Ax-2 Mission To Expand Robust Scientific Research, Biomanufacturing, Technology Demonstrations in LEO• NRO Awards Planet ($PL) and BlackSky ($BKSY) Among Others Contract for Hyperspectral Capabilities• Redwire ($RDW) Wins $5.9M FabLab Contract From NASA To Advance New In-Space Manufacturing Capability• Aerojet Rocketdyne ($AJRD) Streamlines Process To Increase GMLRS Rocket Motor Production• Momentus ($MNTS

) Vigoride-5 Status Update #4• Rocket Lab ($RKLB) Successfully Sets New Company Record for Fastest Launch Turnaround• Spire ($SPIR) and Momentus ($MNTS) Receive Delisting Notices from NYSE and NASDAQ

Opinion

• Riding the Exponential Growth in Space• The “Billionaire Space Race” That Isn’t• The SpaceX Steamroller Has Shifted Into a Higher Gear This Year• Virgin Galactic ($SPCE): Looks More Like a Gamble Than an Investment

Earnings Calendar

• $RDW: March 29 - Before Market Open• $PL: March 29 - After Market Close• $TSAT: March 29 - Before Market Open• $ASTR: March 30 - After Market Close• $NOC: April 27 - Before Market Open (Q1)

*Company confirmed dates only.