Equities
Stories about space companies’ finances, including earnings reports and M&A news.
Iridium ($IRDM) Reports Record Q2 Earnings
Iridium ($IRDM) was doing 2020s-era space stuff before it was cool. The McLean, VA company deployed a constellation in low-Earth orbit and used those satellites to provide connectivity to devices in hard-to-reach areas around the world. It went bankrupt once upon a time, and in 2009 it went public via SPAC. Now, Iridium appears to…
Analysis: Navigating Recessions
Ed. Note: This is a vastly abridged version of Payload’s “Secret Monthly Newsletter” that you can unlock by referring just one new subscriber! This month’s newsletter included access to a larger macro presentation that includes this—and much more. In less than a week, the June CPI (Consumer Price Index, an index that tracks the price…
Several Pure-Play Space Companies Join Russell 3000
Space just got added to your retirement accounts. The Russell 3000, an index that benchmarks the US stock market, added several space companies Monday: Astra ($ASTR) Momentus ($MNTS) Planet ($PL) Redwire ($RDW) Rocket Lab ($RKLB) Spire ($SPIR) Terran Orbital ($LLAP) Spire and Terran Orbital touted their inclusion in the index. “We are honored to be…
Planet ($PL) Reports Q1 Earnings
Image: Planet On Tuesday, Planet released its Q1 2023 earnings for the period ending April 30th 2022. Planet’s stock traded down 10% after hours despite record Q1 revenue, likely due to a spike in net loss and a downward adjustment on full-year revenue guidance. The numbers: Planet booked $40M in revenue in the first quarter…
A Q+A with Redwire’s Andrew Rush
Image: Redwire Last month, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson visited Redwire Space’s headquarters in Jacksonville, FL, and said the city has become “the center for space technology.” To be fair, Nelson was a three-term Florida senator…so he’s not entirely impartial. Nonetheless, Redwire has helped make Jacksonville a space hub, with its corporate HQ and 37,000 square…
Astrocast to grow IoT reach with Hiber acquisition
Swiss-based Internet of Things (IoT) network operator Astrocast has agreed to acquire Netherlands-based IoT-as-a-Service provider Hiber. The deal comes as Astrocast preps for a second IPO. “Hiber’s focus on satellite-enabled IoT solutions, innovation, and production aligns with Astrocast’s strategic go-to-market priorities for 2022 and beyond,” said Astrocast CEO Fabien Jordan. “We’re excited to welcome Hiber…
NRO Awards Biggest-Ever EOCL Imagery Contracts
NRO’s NROL-85 launches. Image: SpaceX/NRO. As if Wednesday wasn’t already filled to the brim with space news, the National Reconaissance Office also had to flex on us and announce its “largest-ever commercial imagery contract.” EOCL, imagery, billions of dollars…let’s break it down: The agency awarded Electro-Optical Commercial Layer (EOCL) contracts to BlackSky ($BSKY), Maxar ($MAXR),…
Spire’s Space Services Business Shines in Upcoming Launch
Spire ($SPIR) announced this morning that it will launch five satellites with SpaceX on the forthcoming Transporter-5 rideshare mission from Florida. What’s notable is the degree to which the company is playing up its space services business. The business unit will have satellites and payloads onboard Transporter-5 for Hancom inSpace, a Korea Aerospace Research Institute…
Rocket Lab Q1 Results Underscore Growing Space Systems Business
Rocket Lab ($RKLB) booked $40.7M in Q1 revenue, which represents a 124% annual jump and quarterly growth of 48%. Net loss widened in Q1, growing ~71% YoY to $26.7M. End-to-end space: The rocket company is executing on its strategy of building out a robust non-rocket business. Rocket Lab’s space systems unit generated $34.1M in Q1,…
AST SpaceMobile Reports Q1 Results
Midland, TX-based AST SpaceMobile ($ASTS) is looking ahead to the expected summer launch of BlueWalker 3 (BW3) with SpaceX. BW3, a 1.5-ton, 693-square-foot phased array beast, will be a testbed for the company’s space-based cellular broadband network technology. Bet the farm moment? In May, the FCC granted AST SpaceMobile an experimental license to test space-to-ground…
Momentus, Virgin Orbit, BlackSky, and Spire Report Q1 Earnings
Image: Niall David/Momentus Even if most of us may not want to think about financial markets right now, earnings season is in full swing. Let’s run through four results from this week, bucketed into two categories. Space transportation Momentus ($MNTS) reported $0 in Q1 revenue on Monday and a $26M net loss. There’s a lot…
Q+A with Satellogic’s Emiliano Kargieman
Satellogic (NASDAQ:SATL) has signed a multiple launch agreement (MLA) with SpaceX covering the deployment of 68 new Earth observation (EO) satellites. The freshly inked MLA succeeds Satellogic’s current one covering 2022 SpaceX launches. On April 1, SpaceX launched five Satellogic satellites to a sun-synchronous orbit on the Transporter-4 rideshare mission. Satellogic says the launch deals…
Boeing, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman Report Q1 Results
Image: Boeing Space Yesterday, Boeing (NYSE:BA) and General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) reported Q1 earnings, while Northrop Grumman’s (NYSE:NOC) results crossed the wire this morning. Space highlights below. $BA Total revenue was $13.9B, down 8.1% YoY. Boeing Defense, Space, & Security (DSS) revenue was $5.4B (-23.7% YoY) DSS recorded a net loss of $929M vs. $405M last…
