Good morning. It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means—it’s time for our weekly space Mike shoutout. Today we’re recognizing astronaut (and Big Bang Theory star) Mike Massimino, who was nominated by a fellow Mike, Michael Doyle, president of Space Northwest.

Reply to this email with the name of a Mike in the space community that we should feature next!

In today's edition...
✈️ Virgin Galactic Q1
🚀 Rocket Lab Q1
📃 Contract opportunities
💸 The term sheet

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Virgin Galactic Details Q1 Results and Upcoming Flight

Virgin Galactic ($SPCE) is returning to space after a nearly two-year hiatus. The company provided further details on the upcoming crewed test flight yesterday, along with its Q1 financial results.

By the numbers:

• Net loss of $159M, compared to a loss of $93M in Q1 2022

• $874M cash and cash equivalents as of Mar. 31

• Adj. EBITDA totaling -$140M

Virgin Galactic burned through $136M of operating cash in Q1 as it prepares for its first commercial flight and invests heavily in its next-gen Delta spacecrafts. Delta is expected to launch in 2026 and generate 75% contribution margins.

Upcoming May test flight: Virgin Galactic announced it will perform a final test flight in late May. The mission will send two pilots and four Virgin Galactic employees to suborbital space, where they will experience weightlessness for a few minutes, before returning to Earth.

• If all goes well, the company will commence commercial flights next month.

Twice around the sun: Virgin Galactic has not attempted a crewed flight since Richard Branson hitched a ride on the spaceplane in July 2021. The suborbital service has been out of commission for nearly two years while the VMS Eve mothership underwent extensive repairs.

The VMS Eve, which carries the rocket-propelled spaceplane to an altitude of 50,000 ft, completed two test flights this year and appears ready for primetime. Likewise, the company’s spaceplane, dubbed VSS Unity, was cleared for service after a seamless final glide test a few weeks back.

Pack your bags: Virgin Galactic's suborbital tourism rival, Blue Origin, has also been grounded for eight months after also facing technical issues with its New Shepard rocket. But the dry spell for private spaceflight could end soon: May is shaping up to be a busy month as Virgin Galactic and the Axiom-2 private mission to the ISS are expected to launch by the end of the month.

Ticket to space: The company has sold over 800 tickets with prices ranging from $200,000 to $450,000. Management and investors hope technical difficulties are behind them and the company can cash in on the waitlist with a consistent flight schedule.

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About CesiumAstro

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Rocket Lab Reports Q1 2023 Earnings

Rocket Lab’s ($RKLB) first quarter revenue exceeded expectations, the company reported on Tuesday’s earnings call.

By the numbers:

• Revenue = $54.9M, a 6% increase from last quarter due to increased launch cadence and lower launch pricing

• Backlog = $494.2M in backlog, a $9.4M decrease from the previous quarter

• Cash and cash equivalents = $450M

Launch made up 36% of revenue, and space systems comprised 64% this quarter. Investments in Neutron and Photon drove faster cash burn.

Looking forward: Rocket Lab projects revenue to jump to $60M-$63M next quarter, with the split between launch services and space systems to remain similar.

Neutron progress

Rocket Lab is making headway on developing Neutron, its medium-lift, next-gen rocket. Neutron hit a payment milestone this quarter with a $24M development contract from the US Space Force. The company completed full scale molds of the rocket’s first stage and assembly of a full scale second stage are underway.

Rocket Lab plans to perform a flight hardware tank test in the second quarter and is continuing construction at its NASA Wallops Flight Facility pad.

+ What else? Neutron’s development costs could lead total losses to surpass $100M for the year.

Space Opportunities

Here are the top three government opportunities for space companies this week, as compiled by our partner TZero.

SDA released additional schedule details for their Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 2 (T2) Transport Layer. The Transport Layer will be procured in three variants; Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. SDA projects up to two T2 Transport Alpha awards. The agency also expects to release the T2 Demonstration and Experimentation System (T2DES) in Q1 FY24 with multiple awards. Email SDA for CUI bidder library.

• T2 Transport – Beta, due May 10

• T2 Transport – Alpha, due June 2

SSC/SNSE released an RFI to identify industry sources capable of providing a spacecraft bus and integration support for a LEO polar-orbiting, sun-synchronous weather sensor being developed to meet Space-Based Environmental Monitoring (SBEM) requirements.

• RFI, flexible response format, due June 5

AFRL provided details on the annual Professional Aerospace Contractors Association briefing for Industry to be held Aug. 28-31 in Albuquerque, NM. This is an opportunity to get updated guidance from AFRL, SSC, SRCO, LANL, and others on future investment plans.

Additional opportunities and details can be found in the TZero Space Tracker.

In Other News

• JPL tested its snake-like EELS robot that’s designed to autonomously map celestial objects.

• NASA proposed a hybrid contract structure for the ISS deorbiting vehicle in a draft RFP.

• The UAE revealed which seven asteroids it will study in the mission that’s expected to launch in 2028.

• Redwire's ($RDW) Q1 revenue increased 75% YoY to $57.6M.

• Tell Payload a little more about yourself (if you haven’t already) to help us get more relevant content into your inbox!

Register For Tomorrow’s Webinar

Launch costs have fallen dramatically over the past several years, but much of the focus of current offerings is on reaching LEO. Launches beyond this, like to GEO and Cislunar, are also ripe for cost disruption as demand is set to grow. The use of orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) in in-space transportation and services is a key factor in achieving this vision.

This webinar will dive into the launch market beyond LEO and how infrastructure like OTVs can push costs down.

The View from Space

There’s housekeeping in space too. Astronaut Frank Rubio is preparing to do maintenance on the BioFabrication Facility aboard the ISS in this photo released Monday.