Parallax (8/26/22)

Good morning, and happy Friday. We're thrilled to welcome the 411 of you who joined the Payload family this week. We’ve got some super exciting news of our own to share. Read on for more on what we’ve got planned.

In today's newsletter:📡 SatixFy SPAC👀 Coming soon...📊 SLS poll🗣️ Weekend content recs🤡 Memetic payload

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Space SPACs: Not Done Yet

SatixFy is bucking the trend and staying the course.

SatixFy 101

• The Israeli startup is a fabless chipmaker and developer of electronically steered antennas.

• Its portfolio consists of “end-to-end” products, ranging from satellite payloads to end-user terminals.

• SatixFy recently unveiled Onyx Aero, a terminal for commercial airliners and large corporate jets that can connect to satellites in LEO, MEO, and GEO orbits.

Bucking the trend…This year, two space startups have walked away from SPAC mergers.

• Tomorrow.io, a weather forecaster and constellation developer, called off its merger with Pine Technology Acquisition Corp ($PTOC).

• Earlier this month, Italy’s D-Orbit and Breeze Holdings Acquisition Corp. ($BREZ) nixed their merger agreement. The last-mile space transporter announced plans in January to go public at a post-deal valuation of ~$1.3B.

Staying the course… SatixFy expects to finalize its merger with Endurance Acquisition Corp ($EDNC) on Nov. 7, but there’s a catch. SatixFy’s equity value was slashed 27%, from $500M to $365M, per a Wednesday SEC filing.

Deciphering the decision: The frothy markets of 2021 are no more and the Payload Space SPAC Index is down 36.6% this year (as of Thursday). Like so many of its peers, SatixFy is facing a difficult macro environment and supply chain headwinds.

While Tomorrow.io and D-Orbit have more confidence in tapping the private markets for capital, SatixFy still appears to have faith in the public route.

• The company tried unsuccessfully to conduct a public offering on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. And, Globes reports, SatixFy cut its 2022 revenue forecast by 75%.

• The new terms may be a tradeoff, featuring more dilution but better prospects for a public debut and company shares.

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Payload Presents Parallax

Drumroll, please…We’re thrilled to announce Parallax, Payload’s newest vertical newsletter! Parallax is hitting inboxes near you very soon.

What’s Parallax? A weekly newsletter covering the science of space, written by Rachael, Payload’s staff reporter. Rachael has led Payload’s coverage of JWST, exoplanet discoveries, astronaut lifting routines, and so much more.

In Parallax, Rachael will walk you through all the biggest stories in space science, from astronomy and astrophysics to interstellar travel and other cosmic curiosities. What are the advantages of methane as a propellant? How does JWST let us peer back in time? Are we alone? Rachael will search far and wide for the answers to all your burning questions about the universe through deep dives and exclusive interviews with experts.

When is it launching? The first edition of Parallax will hit inboxes on Sep. 8, or two Thursdays from now.

S/O—Axia Space, Parallax’s launch sponsor.

Sign up now using the button below. You don’t want to miss the first edition. Plus, you'll earn street cred by being able to say you were there from the start.

Sponsored

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Machina Labs’ robotic sheet forming technology can form a wide range of designs and alloys, without the need for geometry or material specific tooling. With Machina Labs, your lead times reduce by 10X, enabling rapid iteration at your speed of innovation.

Machina Labs customers already include USAF, NASA, and many commercial industry leaders in aerospace and defense. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, the 30,000 sq ft manufacturing facility manufactures and delivers parts to the customers. The long-term mission of the company is to enable volume-invariant production of metal parts enabled by latest in robotics, sensors, advanced software.

Reach out today to obtain a quote for a part or to learn more.

NASA's mega Moon rocket is "go" for launch on Monday. And we want to hear your predictions, Payload Nation: How many people will tune in to the Artemis 1 launch livestream?

In Other News

• T-Mobile ($TMUS) will use Starlink to provide satellite-to-smartphone messaging services in dead zones, starting as early as next year.

• Boeing ($BA) is targeting Q1 2023 for its first crewed Starliner flight with NASA.

• Perseverance found igneous rocks in the Jezero Crater.

• Weather is looking 70% favorable for an SLS launch on Monday.

• Rocket Lab ($RKLB) released its annual ESG impact report.

• NOAA is procuring private weather data slower than it had hoped (h/t WSJ).

Memetic Payloads

We're testing out a new palate cleanser for the newsletter: memes. Let us know what you think. For this week's memetic payload: field trips to rocket/satellite factories vs. Big Tech offices.