by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Small satellite manufacturer Terran Orbital reported a first quarter net loss of $71.4 million on $13.1 million in revenues, but the company said it had a record backlog of $222 million at the end of March. The adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) loss was $14.7 million for the quarter.

“We had a record quarter of contract wins and grew our backlog to more than $220 million by quarter end. We are focused on delivering satellites and expanding our production capacity to satisfy our growing customer demand. Market demand signals for small satellites have been increasing rapidly in 2022 as evidenced by the growth in defense budgets. We continue to see tremendous demand for our satellite manufacturing business going into 2022 and have built our pipeline to over $12 billion of opportunities,” said CEO/Chairman Marc Bell.

BOCA RATON, Fla., March 28, 2022 – Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) (“Terran Orbital” or the “Company”), a leading small satellite manufacturer primarily serving the United States aerospace and defense industry, announced that its common stock and warrants will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange today, March 28, 2022, under the ticker symbols “LLAP” and “LLAP WS”, respectively. 

Terran Orbital has made significant progress over recent months as it prepared to emerge as a public company. Some of the Company’s recent accomplishments include:

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson and former chairman Chamath Palihapitiya are facing a shareholder lawsuit claiming they profited from selling shares while the stock was artificially inflated and known flaws in the company’s space tourism vehicles were hidden. Yahoo News reports: The investor lawsuit, filed February 21 by Virgin Galactic shareholder Thomas Spiteri, seeks damages from the space travel company’s directors and others in management. Palihapitiya took advantage of his […]

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Well, this isn’t good for Virgin Galactic or the Virgin brand it represents. Gizmodo reports:

Chamath Palihapitiya, the chairman of Virgin Galactic and CEO of Social Capital, doesn’t care about the plight of Uyghurs—a Muslim-majority ethnic group that’s faced persecution by the Chinese government. Numerous reports out of China have documented how the Uyghurs have been subject to forced abortions, systematic rape, torture, and internment in concentration camps. But Palihapitiya says “nobody” cares about the Uyghurs, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Palihapitiya, who’s reportedly worth roughly $1.2 billion and is a co-owner of the [Golden State] Warriors basketball team, made the comments Saturday on his podcast, titled All In, which he co-hosts with tech industry veteran Jason Calacanis.

“Nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs,” Palihapitiya said. “You bring it up because you really care, and I think it’s nice that you care. The rest of us don’t care.”

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

A class action lawsuit was filed in New York on Dec. 7 alleging securities fraud by Virgin Galactic, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in October 2019 after merging with Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital Hedosophia (SCH).

Named in the lawsuit are Virgin Galactic Holdings, CEO Michael Colglazier, former CEO George Whitesides, former current chief financial officer Doug Ahrens, and former chief financial officer Jon Compagna.

The lawsuit was filed amid years-long delays in the start of commercial human suborbital flights that have caused a sharp decline in the value of the stock. Virgin Galactic began trading on the New York Stock Exchange at an opening price of $12.34 on Oct. 28, 2019. The stock is now trading at $14.46 having previously soared to a high of $62.80.

SAN FRANCISCO (Planet Labs PR) — Planet Labs Inc. (“Planet”), a leading provider of daily data and insights about earth, today announced that its proposed business combination with dMY Technology Group, Inc. IV (NYSE:DMYQ) (“dMY IV”), a special purpose acquisition company, was approved by dMY IV’s stockholders at its special meeting held on December 3, 2021.

Approximately 99% of the votes cast at the meeting on the business combination proposal voted to approve the transaction.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said it will examine safety issues about Blue Origin’s crewed suborbital New Shepard vehicle raised by a group of current and former employees in an open letter published on Thursday.

The announcement comes 11 days before four paying customers, one reported to be Star Trek star William Shatner, are scheduled to board New Shepard for a trip to space. While a federal safety review might sound reassuring to these ticket holders, what does it actually mean in practice?

Probably not much.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Shares of space infrastructure and manufacturing conglomerate Redwire (RDW) surged by 16.57 percent on Friday during the company’s first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock price rose by $1.74 to $12.24.

The debut came after shareholders of Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. overwhelmingly backed a merger with Redwire on Wednesday. Genesis Park was a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that was already traded on NYSE that was established by investors with the goal of finding a company with which to merge and take public.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. and HOUSTON, Sept. 1, 2021 (Genesis Park PR) — Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. (“GPAC”) (NYSE: GNPK), a U.S. publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company, and Redwire, LLC (“Redwire” or the “Company”), a leader in mission critical space solutions and high reliability components for the next generation space economy, announced that at GPAC’s extraordinary general meeting held today (the “Extraordinary General Meeting”), GPAC’s shareholders voted to approve the previously announced proposed business combination between GPAC and Redwire (the “Business Combination”), as well as all other proposals related to the Business Combination. Approximately 97% of the votes cast at the meeting, representing approximately 73% of GPAC’s outstanding shares as of the record date, voted to approve the Business Combination.

• Spire’s Common Stock to Commence Trading on NYSE Under the Ticker “SPIR”
• Combined Company to Continue Providing Space-Based Data Solutions and Space Services to Global Customers
• Gross Proceeds to Spire totaled $265 million, combining funds held in NavSight Holdings’ Trust and concurrent PIPE financing

VIENNA, Va. & RESTON, Va. (Spire Global PR) – Spire Global, Inc. (“Spire” or the “Company”) a leading global provider of space-based data, analytics and space services, today announced it has completed its previously announced business combination with NavSight Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NSH) (“NavSight”) to take Spire public. The combined company has been renamed “Spire Global, Inc.” and its shares will commence trading on the New York Stock Exchange on August 17, 2021, under the ticker symbol “SPIR” for Spire common stock and “SPIRW” for Spire warrants.