Astra Space

[niwax]

For those of us who aren't fluent in financialese, what does this mean? Raising more money?

If I have the numbers right, they just sold 50% of the company for some $200 million, which works out to a total valuation of less than $400 million. That's a desperation move if I've ever seen one, basically giving up control of the company for 6-12 months of life at their current cash burn. At the IPO, they were valued at over $2 billion. A similar raise then would have cost them only 10%.

[Robotbeat]

Good argument for both raising what you can to have a big cash chest when the going is good and reducing burn rate. They already were very aggressive at execution.

Honestly, if their vehicle production costs are anything close to reality, they should consider defense applications.

[M.E.T.]

Honestly, who ARE the suckers who threw away their money to buy Astra shares at this point in time? Do they know nothing about the industry?

Or do they just have an unwanted $200M to play roulette with? Boggles the mind.

[Robotbeat]

Honestly, who ARE the suckers who threw away their money to buy Astra shares at this point in time? Do they know nothing about the industry?

Or do they just have an unwanted $200M to play roulette with? Boggles the mind.

Theyre less suckers than those who bought near the IPO!

Astra has at least gotten to orbit.

[josephus]

Not great timing …

https://twitter.com/nomadbets/status/1551120384652632065

Astra Space ($ASTR) held an offering after hours, basically doubling their amount of outstanding shares. Closing price according the filing was $1.49.
Also their financial report date was filed for August 4th.
Choppy seas ahead, I hope they'll pull through.

Astra did NO offering in July 2022. In fact, I don't think that Astra did an offering in 2022. That image shows the number of Astra's shares in its primary and secondary offerings at its SPAC IPO back in the summer of 2021.

If you go through Astra's filings with SEC you will find that the same number of shares listed as primary and secondary offerings on all 424B3 form filings: https://sec.report/Ticker/astr

You got fooled by that random person on Twitter or you are doing this intentionally for some purpose. Either way, you are spreading lies intended to hurt this company. Not cool.

[Zed_Noir]

Honestly, who ARE the suckers who threw away their money to buy Astra shares at this point in time? Do they know nothing about the industry?

Or do they just have an unwanted $200M to play roulette with? Boggles the mind.

They know exactly what they are investing in. A money losing business for tax write off, IMO.

[edkyle99]

I don't know about the money side of things, but Astra is a company with intellectual property that has successfully reached Earth orbit twice (so far).  There are only a few companies on that list. 

 - Ed Kyle

[Robotbeat]

I don't know about the money side of things, but Astra is a company with intellectual property that has successfully reached Earth orbit twice (so far).  There are only a few companies on that list. 

 - Ed Kyle

Strong agree. I don’t do retail investing at all, and frankly that whole aspect of the NewSpace craze bores me.

But if we’re just talking technical stuff, reaching orbit is ridiculously hard. They’ve done it. That’s worth quite a bit all by itself.

[M.E.T.]

I don't know about the money side of things, but Astra is a company with intellectual property that has successfully reached Earth orbit twice (so far).  There are only a few companies on that list. 

 - Ed Kyle

Strong agree. I don’t do retail investing at all, and frankly that whole aspect of the NewSpace craze bores me.

But if we’re just talking technical stuff, reaching orbit is ridiculously hard. They’ve done it. That’s worth quite a bit all by itself.

Not disputing the achievement. However, investment is not a reward for doing hard things, but is a bet on the company’s ability to generate a financial return on said investment over time. And that assessment should be conducted in the context of their business case.

[Robotbeat]

I don't know about the money side of things, but Astra is a company with intellectual property that has successfully reached Earth orbit twice (so far).  There are only a few companies on that list. 

 - Ed Kyle

Strong agree. I don’t do retail investing at all, and frankly that whole aspect of the NewSpace craze bores me.

But if we’re just talking technical stuff, reaching orbit is ridiculously hard. They’ve done it. That’s worth quite a bit all by itself.

Not disputing the achievement. However, investment is not a reward for doing hard things, but is a bet on the company’s ability to generate a financial return on said investment over time. And that assessment should be conducted in the context of their business case.

A team capable of getting to orbit is valuable.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/astra/status/1554091607015559168

Astra Founder, Chairman and CEO @Kemp will present at @Jefferies Industrials Conference on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at 2.30pm ET / 11.30am PT. A live webcast will be available at https://investor.astra.com/news-and-events/events-and-presentations

From the same link there’s also:

Upcoming Events
Astra’s Second Quarter Fiscal 2022 Financial Results Conference Call
Aug 4, 2022 at 4:30 PM EDT

Will be interesting to see if there’s any new information about the investigation into the last flight’s failure.

[XRZ.YZ]

https://twitter.com/SpaceInvestor_/status/1554579808440516609

Some PE fund promised to buy up to $100M Astra stock issued in next 24month.
And this operation will not exceed 19.99% of all Astra shares.


Did not mention issue price so I assume it will floating with market price with some discount.

[JayWee]

No more Rocket 3.0 launches!

Astra Earnings Statement - https://investor.astra.com/news-releases/news-release-details/astra-announces-second-quarter-2022-financial-results

Astra announces that after two of its four Rocket 3.3 flights were successful, the Company will transition to the next version of its launch system and is working with customers to re-manifest all payloads onto the new launch system, designed for higher capacity, reliability, and production rate.

-Updated, streamlined plan to invest in delivering higher reliability, higher capacity 600kg Launch System 2.0 to market.

-Commenced customer deliveries of the Astra Spacecraft EngineTM, with total committed orders since July 1, 2021, up 69% over Q1 2022. This includes committed orders for 14 units acquired with the Apollo Fusion acquisition.

-Began investing in new production facility to support increased demand for the Astra Spacecraft EngineTM.

-Held first inaugural Spacetech Day for investors and analysts.

For the three months ended June 30, 2022:
GAAP Gross Loss was $14.8 million.
Adjusted Gross Loss* was $2.4 million.
GAAP Net Loss was $82.3 million.
Adjusted Net Loss* was $53.0 million.
Adjusted EBITDA Loss* of $48.4 million.
Capital expenditures during the quarter totaled $12.9 million.
Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $200.7 million.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

PDF version of Q2 2022 results is attached

Edit to add:

https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1555286241997836289

Astra has doubled the planned payload capacity for Rocket 4.0. Launch price also increases as a result.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Wow

twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1555287020326494214

Astra's presentation for the Q2 conference call says that the TROPICS-1 mission failure investigation is still ongoing. $ASTR

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1555293159109922818

$ASTR CEO Chris Kemp: "We will not have any additional flights in 2022."

https://twitter.com/sciguyspace/status/1555292835259338755

Astra CEO Chris Kemp said it's not certain that the company will resume commercial launches in 2023. It will depend on how development and testing goes with the next generation launch system. May be later.

twitter.com/sciguyspace/status/1555293237652475904

NASA is an unreal customer. Told Astra it's willing to wait for "launch system 2.0" for the Tropics mission.

https://twitter.com/sciguyspace/status/1555294068497960960

Astra presently has about $200 million in cash and marketable securities on hand. Obviously the current burn rate is not sustainable. Perhaps they'll get enough revenue from their in-space thruster business (Astra Spacecraft Engine). I don't know. Finances look pretty tough.

[XRZ.YZ]

Astra mentioned rocket 4.0 as higher liability launch system.
Probably confirming designed with 95% reliability is not a good idea afterall.

Revenue of $2.7M. Cost of revenue $17M, presumably including failed Rocket 3.3 launch.
Unlike RL, Astra's satellite components business is very small and probably do not have serious impact in company operation.


R&D $41M
Sale & Marketing $5M
Admin $20M
Total operating cost at $67M

Net loss $82M

Cash &equivalent $104M, (Q1 $161M)
Marketable security $96M (Q1 $93M)

Operating cash flow -$44M (Q1 -$48M)
Capex -$11M (Q1 -$20M)
Free cash flow -$55M (Q1 -$69M)

Cash run rate better than Q1 majorly from reduced capex.
On operating side, they loss $45M is steady.
$20M admin cost is way too high for company of this size.

 Let's say $40M R&D/quarter for 3 year until reliable Rocket 4.0 launch.
That is about $500M cost.

Which they do not have thatch money in hand (200M+100M from stock purchase agreement  signed a few days ago) And later is not money in hand yet.

And how can they earn this back with $5M Rocket 4.0 service?
Assuming they earn $1M gross profit each launch. They need 20 launch a quarter just for their admin cost.


Seem like the management are producing more vaporware instead of working product so they can move more investment money into their own wallet.

[XRZ.YZ]

https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1555312797084291072

https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1555313166581567489

https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1555313816098877441

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1555312986528661505

[trimeta]

Astra mentioned rocket 4.0 as higher liability launch system.
Probably confirming designed with 95% reliability is not a good idea afterall.

I think you meant "rocket 4.0 as higher reliability launch system." Although this may have been a Freudian slip...

[M.E.T.]

https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1555312797084291072

https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1555313166581567489

https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1555313816098877441

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1555312986528661505

Blindingly obvious. It is exasperating that supposedly knowledgeable people ignored this for so many years, duping investors out of billions of cumulative dollars in the process.

[TrevorMonty]

A 600kg LV is to big for single smallsat dedicated launch and to small to compete against 1000kg class LVs of which there are 3  due to launch in 2022.
I very much doubt Astra will be profitable enough at $5M a launch when 1000kg LVs are in $10-15m range.

This changing directions without completing existing product especially one that is nearly operational is not good look.
If Rocket 3.0 was profitable they should see it through to regular and reliable launch. The cashflow even if not enough to keep wolves from doors should buy them time. Lessons learnt will also be valuable when building larger LV.