Uncharted waters (8/11/23)

Good morning. Happy Friday, especially to the 78 of you who hopped aboard the Payload ship this week.

Today’s newsletter:
🌊 Spaceports at sea
💲 SPAC earnings roundup
💫 Payload’s picks

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For The Spaceport Company, the Water is Calling

When Tom Marotta founded The Spaceport Company last year, he knew he was entering a domain usually reserved for governments or large corporations.

“I said, ‘I think I want to go build a spaceport,’” Marotta told Payload. “Which is a weird thing to say, right? It’s like saying I want to go build a railroad or I’m gonna go build a bridge. Startups don’t build infrastructure.”

But Marotta’s career has always lived at the intersection of infrastructure, government, and space.

He got his start in city planning and foreign service reconstruction work before joining the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, where he contributed to regulations for the emerging launch industry and was in the meeting where SpaceX first proposed the wild idea of landing a first stage booster on a barge.

He went on to work at Astra, where he experienced firsthand the congestion at US ranges and the scarcity of reliable access to space. He saw an opportunity to fix the problem, and The Spaceport Company was born.

How it works: The Spaceport Company, which started with less than $1M in pre-seed funding, uses a leased liftboat to transport rockets ~10 nautical miles out to sea. The liftboat then extends its four poled legs down to the seabed, anchoring itself to create a stable platform for launch. Post-launch, the boat pulls up its legs and sails back to land to pick up its next rocket.

The pros: Launching at sea offers numerous advantages compared to land-based ranges, Marotta said, including:

• Far fewer environmental impacts

• No community disruptions and road closures

• The ability to sail to locations better suited for different orbits

• Potentially lower launch fees due to a less burdensome regulatory process

Starbase Exhibit A: You don’t need to look farther than Texas to see the challenges of launching from land. Rock tornadoes, bird sanctuaries, protected lands, road closures, beachgoers, water discharge, and community disruptions are just some of the issues that SpaceX has to contend with at Starbase in Boca Chica, TX.

The company is already facing an environmental lawsuit after its first Starship integrated flight test rained down dust on the surrounding homes.

“Sea-based launch gets around a lot of the problems SpaceX is experiencing at Starbase. You could put a pad in the ocean and reduce community opposition and risk to the public,” Marotta said.

• In 2020, SpaceX bought two deep water oil rigs to explore this very idea. However, the company ended up selling both platforms earlier this year, deciding to focus on launching from land before venturing out to sea.

Read the rest of the story online. 

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This ten-image collection captured over Ream, Cambodia, shows the rapid pace of development of a large Chinese military naval station from August 2021 until July 2023.

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BlackSky’s unique constellation can capture imagery on an hourly basis up to 15 times a day, allowing customers to observe critical change over time.

SPAC Q2 Financials Roundup

Earnings season is in full swing, with several closely-watched companies reporting financial results this week. Here’s our high-level takeaway on what you need to know.

Rocket Lab ($RKLB): While a number of space SPACs are just trying to keep their heads above water, Rocket Lab continues to be a bright spot.

The company executed three launches in Q2 and remains on track to hit 15 flights this year. Q2 revenue grew 12% YoY, supported by its spacecraft manufacturing segment, which brought in $39.6M (64% of total revenue) this quarter. Despite the growth, losses continue to pile up, hitting $45.9M of net loss this quarter.

Redwire ($RDW): The space infrastructure company is inching toward profitability. Net loss slimmed to $5.5M as the company continues to grow revenue while keeping a tight lid on fixed costs.

• Sales increased 64% YoY to $60.1M.

• Contracted backlog grew 68% YoY to $273M.

• Redwire secured $45.6M in new contracts this quarter.

Spire ($SPIR): Spire Q2 revenue increased 37% to $26.5M. The company now has $112.8M of annual recurring revenue and is projecting positive adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow in 2024. The company announced it will complete a reverse stock split within 30 days to boost its stock price over $1 and regain NYSE listing compliance.

BlackSky ($BKSY): BlackSky reported Q2 revenue of $19.3M, a 28% YoY increase. The company announced it has secured five additional Electron launches to deploy its Gen-3 EO birds.

Non-SPAC corner:

Viasat ($VSAT): Q1 revenue increased 36% YoY to $780M, driven by one month of Inmarsat sales and strong demand for inflight connectivity and information assurance. The company continues to work through ways of addressing last month’s ViaSat-3 Americas antenna anomaly, including further troubleshooting and augmenting capacity.

EchoStar ($SATS): Echostar is merging with Dish Network ($DISH) in an all-stock agreement. The deal brings the two businesses back together 15 years after Echostar was spun out from Dish.

*Exhales*, a busy week indeed.

In Other News

• Virgin Galactic sent its first crew of tourists to the edge of space.

• France is looking to fund microlauncher demo missions.

• SpaceX will offer satellite rideshare deployment at an altitude of 550 to 605 km and at an inclination of 45 degrees.

• Russia launched its Luna-25 lander to the Moon.

The View from Space