WASHINGTON — Astra Space, still low on cash as it works to finalize a deal to take the company private, is consolidating its operations at its headquarters less than two years after expanding into a new facility.
In a delayed quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission May 29, Astra said it would relocate a satellite propulsion manufacturing facility in Sunnyvale, California, to its headquarters in Alameda, California, by the end of the third quarter of the year.
Astra didn’t give a reason for the move, but it will likely result in lower costs for the company. The company announced in 2022 it would open a facility in Sunnyvale for its Astra Spacecraft Engine electric propulsion systems, allowing the company to devote its Alameda headquarters to work on launch vehicles. The company said the Sunnyvale facility opened in March 2023.
Satellite thrusters now comprise the bulk of Astra’s business as the company has deferred work on a new launch vehicle, Rocket 4. The company reported just $3.9 million in revenue in 2023, which came exclusively from its satellite propulsion or “space products” unit.
Astra reported $285,000 in revenue in the first quarter of 2024, again exclusively from its space products unit. The company reported an operating loss of $24.4 million for the quarter.
The filing offered no updates on a deal Astra announced in March to take the company private for $0.50 per share. That deal, led by company co-founders Chris Kemp and Adam London, was scheduled to close some time in the second quarter of the year.
In its SEC filing, Astra said it ended the quarter with $6.6 million of cash and cash equivalents. However, $3.5 million of that was set aside as part of the deal to take the company private, and an additional $500,000 was restricted under terms of a customer contract until the company starts delivering thrusters to that customer, currently scheduled for November.
Astra has continued to raise modest amounts of cash through the sale of convertible notes and stock warrants. However, if warned that if those injections of cash were interrupted, or if the deal to take the company private fell through, “the Company’s operations and production plans will be further scaled back or curtailed and the Company may be required to file a Chapter 7 [bankruptcy] Liquidation.”
