Live on the edge (8/29/23)

Good morning. A quick programming note that we’ll be off on Monday for Labor Day. We’ll be back in your inbox on Sept. 5.

Today’s newsletter:
🎙️ Pathfinder #0061
🕷️ SpiderOak x Axiom
🔁 On the move

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The Fight to Survive and Pathfinder #0061 with Chris Kemp

This week’s Pathfinder podcast features Chris Kemp, the founder and CEO of Astra ($ASTR), a publicly-traded launch company based in Alameda, CA, that went public via SPAC in summer 2021.

Since then, Astra's valuation has seen a dramatic decline, plummeting from a peak of approximately $4B to a mere $67M today. Chris paints a vivid picture of two contrasting narratives. On one hand, there's a satellite propulsion business, acquired through the purchase of startup Apollo Fusion, with a 278-engine backlog valued between $70M and $83M (based on an average selling price of $250-300K). This business has a distant but potential opportunity to win contracts that could significantly change its trajectory.

In contrast, the launch business is in jeopardy as capital evaporates. Astra's Rocket 4 must not only launch successfully, but also prove its consistency to secure significant commercial deals.

A sneak peek…

Many of our readers are well-acquainted with Astra's struggles, given the numerous reports on the company's launch failures and recent wave of departures. Today, our conversation with Chris primarily focuses on the future of Astra and how to think about what upside case may remain for the business. We chat:

• Rocket 3 vs Rocket 4: Why Rocket 3 failed and the lessons applied to Rocket 4

• The status of commercial and government contracts

• The state of financing for launch companies

• Valuing Astra’s satellite propulsion business

• Key lessons learned as CEO

• What does the future hold for Astra?

• And much more…

Pathfinder #0061 is live now…

…check it out on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or desktop.

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SpiderOak Demonstrates Cybersecurity on the ISS

SpiderOak demoed its OrbitSecure cybersecurity platform aboard the ISS last month, the company announced this morning, setting the stage for a future in which data can be securely shared in space by civil and defense customers.

The demo used an AWS Snowcone edge computing platform supplied by Axiom Space, and involved transmitting data back and forth from Earth using the ISS’ Tracking and Data Relay System (TDRS).

“The team’s successful demonstration of OrbitSecure technology is a significant step toward building secure, dynamic, and scalable space communications and data processing infrastructures,” Jason Aspiotis, director of in-space infrastructure and logistics at Axiom, said in a statement.

Living on the edge: SpiderOak’s OrbitSecure platform relies on containerized workloads, in which bits of code are bundled together with all the files they need to run independently of other blocks of information. This siloing of different applications makes for more efficient and secure data processing and transmission in orbit.

In June, SpiderOak demonstrated its OrbitSecure technology on a Ball Aerospace payload in LEO. The ISS demonstration marked a step up in the complexity of the operation, and further validated the software in space.

The big picture: Cybersecurity is top of mind for defense customers in particular, who may be staking lives on the safe and confidential transfer of data to and from space. In its $30B budget request for fiscal 2024, USSF earmarked $700M for cybersecurity.

Looking to the future, SpiderOak also aims to use its containerized infrastructure to lay the groundwork to build secure data centers in orbit to support the growing in-space economy and need for increased data storage and utilization in orbit.

These Speakers Will Be At Our Investor Summit. Will You?

The Payload team is excited to announce our first lineup of speakers for our Space Investor Summit on Nov. 8 in Los Angeles.

​Payload's Space Investor Summit will bring together a select group of leading institutional investors, policy makers, and space industry executives from around the world to network, discuss market trends, explore tangible investment opportunities, and offer a forum to engage in constructive, future-forward dialogue.

​This event is intended for senior-level institutional investors, space executives, and government and military officials only.

In Other News

• Virgin Galactic ($SPCE) plans to launch its next tourism flight on Sept. 8.

• Ukraine’s once-vibrant space economy is struggling.

• ULA returned its Atlas V to the vertical integration facility and delayed its planned launch for the NRO due to weather conditions.

• NASA delayed its New Frontiers planetary science mission due to budget constraints.

The View from Space

Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen, the first non-US pilot for the Crew Dragon, arrived at the ISS to embark on his six-month Huggin mission.