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Space SPAC Index: Astra Hires ShareIntel to Investigate Stock Sales as Delisting Deadline Looms, Companies Dodge Bullets in SVB Collapse

By Doug Messier
Parabolic Arc
March 14, 2023
Filed under , , , , , ,
Space SPAC Index: Astra Hires ShareIntel to Investigate Stock Sales as Delisting Deadline Looms, Companies Dodge Bullets in SVB Collapse
Astra Rocket 3.0. (Credit: DARPA)

Also: Satellogic to Launch Crop Signals Device

Welcome to this week’s S-SPACi.

Launch provider Astra Space (NAS: ASTR) has hired Shareholder Intelligence Services (ShareIntel) to investigate possible illegal short selling of the company’s Class A common stock as an April 4 deadline looms to avoid being delisted from the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Astra said it made the move to “proactively review stockholder ownership of Astra’s Class A common stock in an effort to identify parties to suspicious, aberrant or unusual trading activity and deploy corrective action steps to help curtail any such activity.”

“Astra remains committed to protecting our investors and maximizing stockholder value. Partnering with ShareIntel will allow Astra to track share ownership, monitor any irregular trading behavior, and take appropriate measures, if necessary,” CEO and Chairman Chris Kemp said.

Astra Space received a delisting notice from Nasdaq in early October after its stock price closed below $1 for 30 consecutive days. It was given 180 days to get the price back up to $1 or facing being delisted from the stock exchange.

The stock closed at $0.45 on Tuesday.

Astra has the right to appeal any delisting move. It could be granted an additional 180 days to raises its stock price.

Astra Space’s goal is to achieve a high launch rate with very low cost boosters. The company abandoned its Rocket 3.3 last year after multiple failures. Astra is now working to develop the larger Rocket 4.0.

Space SPAC Index

CompanyFirst Trading DayOpening Share PriceHighClosing Price (3/14/23)
Arqit (NAS: ARQQ)
Sept. 7, 2021$9.25$41.52 (9/23/21) $1.09
Astra Space (NAS: ASTR)July 1, 2021$12.30$16.95 (7/2/21)$0.45
AST SpaceMobile (NAS: ASTS)April 7, 2021$11.63$15.48 (6/30/21)$6.17
BigBear.ai (NYS: BBAI)Dec. 8, 2021$9.84$16.12 (4/6/22)$1.87
BlackSky (NYS: BKSY)Sept. 10, 2021$11.80$13.20 (9/16/21)$1.39
Intuitive Machines (NAS: LUNR)Feb. 14, 2023$10.00$10.58 (2/14/23)$14.57
Momentus (NAS: MNTS)Aug. 13, 2021$10.8512.87 (9/7/21)$0.63
Planet Labs (NYS: PL)Dec. 8, 2021$11.25$11.65 (12/8/21)$4.07
Redwire (NYS: RDW)Sept. 3, 2021$10.70$16.98 (10/25/21)$3.55
Rocket Lab (NAS: RKLB)
Aug. 25, 2021$11.58$21.34 (9/9/21) $3.89
Satellogic (NAS: SATL)Jan. 26, 2022$9.19$10.92 (5/4/22) $2.45
Satixfy (NYS: SATX)Oct. 28, 2022$8.29$51.70
(11/17/22)
$0.91
Spire (NYS: SPIR)Aug. 17, 2021$10.25 $19.50 (9/22/21)$0.81
Terran Orbital (NYS: LLAP)March 28, 2022$12.69$12.69 (3/28/22) $2.15
Virgin Galactic (NYS: SPCE)Oct. 28, 2019$11.79$62.80 (2/4/21)$5.00
Virgin Orbit (NAS: VORB)Dec. 30, 2021$8.525$11.28 (1/11/22)$1.06
Stock Price Source: Yahoo Finance

Companies Dodge Bullets in Bank Collapse

Astra, Rocket Lab (NAS: RKLB) and other space companies will be able to access funds they had deposited in Silicon Valley Bank, which collapsed last week amid a run on deposits.

The U.S. government stepped in to guarantee all deposits in the bank. Previously, only deposits above $250,000 were protected.

Astra reported that it had $38 million in SVB, which amounted to “approximately 7.9% of the Company’s total cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities as of December 31.”

Rocket Lab reported that 15% of its cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were held in SVB as of March 10, 2023.

Astra and Rocket Lab reported their deposits in SVB because they are public companies. Reports indicate that other space companies also have deposits in the bank.

Satellogic & InterPlanet to Launch Crop Signals Device

Satellogic (NAS: SATL) and InnerPlant are launching a first-of-its-kind device designed to detect human-engineered crop signals from space.

“The specially designed imaging instrument is scheduled to be mounted to a Satellogic satellite and is intended to detect optical signals emitted by crops engineered by InnerPlant to fluoresce in response to stress such as an attack from pathogens or a lack of water or nutrients,” InnerPlanet said in a press release.

Drone-based aerial testing will start in the next few months. The satellite-mounted device will be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket later this year.

5 responses to “Space SPAC Index: Astra Hires ShareIntel to Investigate Stock Sales as Delisting Deadline Looms, Companies Dodge Bullets in SVB Collapse”

  1. Thomas Matula says:
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    They may be able to get their cash out of SVB, but it ‘s long term impact, which is yet to be felt, will on getting revolving lines of credit and new funding.

  2. Andrew Tubbiolo says:
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    I’m shocked they took the government bailout. You’d think being true believers in raw capitalism where the market culls out failure and bad business decisions, they’d just say, wow, we made a bad call, the market is going to teach us how to not make these bad calls by punishing us. We should just accept the punishment since it is just. They should just admit that public bailouts are bad. Bad like the bailouts for the student loans. After all it sets up a moral danger that will encourage businessmen and corporate boards to make bad decisions anticipating a public bailout. Astra should just accept the fact that the bank they chose failed and accept the loss of their bad decision.

    • redneck says:
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      As one that has gone broke three times and paid the price of doing it, I am not the most unbiased observer. My mistakes cost me years to recover each time and I resent my taxes paying for the failure of others. And yet I would likely have taken a bailout if it was available a couple of those times. I am not so sure of my ideology if I am the one going under even while recognizing that it’s not really right.

      Still, penalizing the taxpayer to support a failure is not right, whether it’s billionaires or drug addicts.

      • Andrew Tubbiolo says:
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        It’s human nature to take the bailout for all the reasons you stated. All political systems bail out the rich and those who can pretend well. That’s also human nature. The market place as self regulator never has and never will be applied with full force. It’s time we grow up and face it. If the public is going to bail out the rich and those who can pretend then the state needs the power to regulate, and it needs to exercise that power. It’s human nature to gamble with other peoples money and any system fine tunes that human trait to a fine art.

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