Astra Space, the launch company that went public in 2021 at a $2.1 billion valuation, is going private again after months of burning cash and failing to secure alternate investment.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024, at which time Astra will cease trading on the Nasdaq.
In an investor presentation from February 2021, Astra touted a “mass produced portable launch system” that could launch from anywhere in the world.
At the time Astra completed its SPAC merger it also acquired Apollo Fusion, an electric propulsion developer for spacecraft, with the aim of integrating those systems into an Astra satellite constellation.
That constellation never came to fruition, however, and while the company did succeed in selling many Apollo Fusion propulsion systems it has struggled to turn that backlog into revenue.
So it is with Nuview, a startup aiming to map the world from space using lidar, who announced today that its acquisition of analytics platform Astraea.
In a recent interview, Nuview CEO Clint Graumann also declined to specify how many of Astraea’s employee’s would be joining the company.
Nuview is relatively young to be executing on an acquisition; Graumann founded the company in January 2022, and has raised at least $15 million to date.
“I’ve always seen Earth observation companies who try to build every capability from the ground up, struggle,” he said.
Spoc”, though Graumann declined to specify whether Nuview had booked a firm launch date for that demonstration mission.
Terran Orbital may be close to receiving a major payment from its biggest customer, CEO Marc Bell announced internally at a company-wide meeting earlier this month.
While Terran is pursuing other lucrative contracts that could comprise billions in work, its $2.4 billion contract with Rivada is by far the largest it has secured so far.
Earlier this quarter, Terran had to adjust its full-year financial outlook after Rivada delayed paying an incremental $180 million toward that total contract award.
“I had dinner with [Rivada CEO] Declan Ganley last week in DC,” Bell told staff during the meeting, a recording of which was obtained by TechCrunch.
As of November, Terran reported a backlog of future work of $2.6 billion, of which $2.4 billion is from the Rivada contract.
Since Rocket Lab’s founding in 2006, the company has continuously proven that it is more than a launch company. In 2022, their space systems business brought in over 70% of…
