Registration

 

 

 

 

FORM

 

 

 

(866)

 

(866)

 

(612)

 

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933 check the following box:    ☒

If this form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.    ☐

If this form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.    ☐

If this form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.    ☐

non-accelerated

12b-2

 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.    ☐

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This prospectus relates to the issuance by us of up to an aggregate of (i) 9,999,970 shares of our Class A common stock that may be issued upon exercise of warrants to purchase Class A common stock at an exercise price of $11.50 per share (the “public warrants”) issued by Holicity Inc. (“Holicity”) in its initial public offering; and (ii) 5,333,333 shares of our Class A common stock that may be issued upon exercise of private placement warrants at an exercise price of $11.50 per share that were originally sold to Holdings Corporation (the “Sponsor”) in a private placement consummated simultaneously with Holicity’s IPO (the “private placement warrants” and, together with the public warrants, the “warrants”).

This prospectus also relates to the offer and sale, from time to time, by the selling securityholders named in this prospectus (the “Selling Securityholders”), or any of their permitted transferees, of (i) 5,333,333 private placement warrants; (ii) up to an aggregate of 5,333,333 shares of our Class A common stock that may be issued upon exercise of the private placement warrants held by the Selling Securityholders; (iii) up to an aggregate of 20,000,000 shares of our Class A common stock that were issued to certain investors (collectively, the “PIPE Investors”) in a private placement in connection with the closing of the Business Combination (as defined herein); (iv) 7,500,000 shares of Class A common stock issued to the Sponsor prior to Holicity’s initial public offering and registered for sale by the Selling Securityholders; (v) up to an aggregate of 92,277,793 shares of Class A common stock that were issued to certain affiliates of Astra (collectively, the “Astra Affiliates”) pursuant to the Business Combination Agreement (as defined herein); (vi) up to an aggregate 56,239,188 shares of Class A common stock issuable upon conversion (on a basis) of shares of our Class B common stock, par value $0.0001 per share held by certain Selling Securityholders and (vii) up to an aggregate of 7,676,261 shares of our Class A common stock issued in connection with our acquisition of Apollo Fusion, Inc. (“Apollo”), which closed on July 1, 2021 comprised of (x) 2,558,744 shares of our Class A common stock (the “Initial Shares”) issued to certain of the Selling Securityholders on July 1, 2021, in connection with our merger with Apollo and (y) 5,117,517 additional shares of our Class A common stock (the “Additional Shares”) which may be issued to certain of the Selling Securityholders assuming (a) the achievement of all remaining performance milestones set forth in the Apollo Merger Agreement (as defined herein), (b) we elect to pay all future milestone consideration in shares of our Class A common stock as required by the terms the Apollo Merger Agreement, and (c) the per share price used to calculate the number of shares of our Class A common stock to be issued is $11.7243, which is the same per share price used to calculate the number of Initial Shares issued to the Selling Securityholders. The Additional Shares have not been earned and are not currently outstanding. The actual number of Additional Shares issued to the Selling Securitiyholders could be materially greater or less than 5,117,517 shares of Class A common stock depending whether and to what extent the future performance milestones are met and/or the actual average closing price of our Class A common stock at the time such milestones are achieved. This prospectus also covers any additional securities that may become issuable by reason of share splits, share dividends or other similar transactions.

Our registration of the securities covered by this prospectus does not mean that either we or the Selling Securityholders will issue, offer or sell, as applicable, any of the securities. The issuance of Additional Shares of our Class A common stock to the Selling Securityholders, if any, is contingent upon the achievement of performance milestones specified in the Apollo Merger Agreement. The Selling Securityholders and any of their permitted transferees may offer and sell the securities covered by this prospectus in a number of different ways and at varying prices. Additional information on the Selling Securityholders, and the times and manner in which they may offer and sell the securities under this prospectus, is provided under “” and “” in this prospectus.

Our Class A common stock is listed on Nasdaq under the symbol “ASTR”. As of the date hereof, all of our publicly listed warrants have been redeemed and are no longer listed on a securities exchange. On May 2, 2022, the closing price of our Class A common stock was $3.28per share.

		Page
ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS			1
SELECTED DEFINITIONS			2
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS			5
SUMMARY OF THE PROSPECTUS			6
RISK FACTORS			13
USE OF PROCEEDS			42
BUSINESS			43
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS			50
MANAGEMENT			64
EXECUTIVE AND DIRECTOR COMPENSATION			69
DESCRIPTION OF SECURITIES			86
SECURITIES ACT RESTRICTIONS ON RESALE OF SECURITIES			94
SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT			96
CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS			106
UNITED STATES FEDERAL INCOME TAX CONSIDERATIONS			109
PLAN OF DISTRIBUTION			115
LEGAL MATTERS			120
EXPERTS			120
CHANGES IN INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM			120
WHERE YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION			122
INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS			F-1

S-1

Neither we nor the Selling Securityholders have authorized anyone to provide any information or to make any representations other than those contained in this prospectus, any accompanying prospectus supplement or any free writing prospectus we have prepared. We and the Selling Securityholders take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. This prospectus is an offer to sell only the securities offered hereby and only under circumstances and in jurisdictions where it is lawful to do so. No dealer, salesperson or other person is authorized to give any information or to represent anything not contained in this prospectus, any applicable prospectus supplement or any related free writing prospectus. This prospectus is not an offer to sell securities, and it is not soliciting an offer to buy securities, in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. You should assume that the information appearing in this prospectus or any prospectus supplement is accurate only as of the date on the front of those documents only, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or any applicable prospectus supplement, or any sale of a security. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since those dates.

For investors outside the U.S.: neither we nor the Selling Securityholders have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the U.S. Persons outside the U.S. who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of our securities and the distribution of this prospectus outside the U.S.

 

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Unless the context otherwise requires, in this prospectus, references to “Astra”, the “Company”, “us”, “we”, “our” and any related terms prior to the closing of the Business Combination are intended to mean Astra Space, Inc., a Delaware corporation n/k/a Astra Space Operations, Inc. (the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary), and its consolidated subsidiaries after the closing of the Business Combination are intended to mean Astra Space, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and its consolidated subsidiaries, including Astra Space Operations, Inc.

 

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X-icity

one-third

 

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The statements contained in this prospectus that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements. These statements are indicated by words or phrases such as “anticipate,” “expect,” “estimate,” “seek,” “plan,” “project,” “aim,” “believe,” “could,” “should,” “intend,” “will,” and similar words or phrases. These forward-looking statements may include projections of financial information; statements about historical results that may suggest trends for our business; statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of management for future operations; statements of expectation or belief regarding future events (including any acquisitions we may make), technology developments, our products, product sales, expenses, liquidity, cash flow and growth rates. Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections of our performance, our industry’s performance and macroeconomic conditions, based on management’s judgment, beliefs, current trends and market conditions, and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. We derive most of our forward-looking statements from our operating budgets and forecasts, which are based upon many detailed assumptions. While we believe that our assumptions are reasonable, we caution that it is very difficult to predict the impact of known factors, and it is impossible for us to anticipate all factors that could affect our actual results and undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. Accordingly, we caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements. Forward-looking statements in this prospectus may include, for example, statements about:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this prospectus, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by forward-looking statements such as those contained in documents we have filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date, and we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, our actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a discussion of the risks involved in our business and investing in our common stock, see the section entitled “Risk Factors.”

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

 

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Increase launch capability. We plan to demonstrate a monthly launch capability by the end of 2022 and approach a more frequent launch capability by the end of 2025. In order to achieve these milestones, we are accelerating our development and production efforts and exploring locations for additional launch sites based on our customers’ inclination needs.

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Increase the payload of our rockets. We plan to increase the maximum payload capacity of our launch vehicle to meet the customer needs and demands through a process of iterative development and improvement.

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Commence commercial launch operations. In November 2021, we successfully launched launch vehicle LV0007 to an altitude of 500 kilometers successfully demonstrating the orbital placement of a test payload. We commenced paid commercial launch operations in the first quarter of 2022.

 

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Develop, license or acquire Core Technology . We plan to develop, license or acquire core space technologies that we expect to commercialize and incorporate into our launch vehicles, spacecraft and other infrastructure that we will use to deliver our product and space service offerings. These core technologies including, among other things, electric propulsion and solar power. For example, we acquired propulsion technology through our merger with Apollo Fusion, which we announced on June 2, 2021, and closed on July 1, 2021.

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Space Services offering. By 2023, we plan to commence offering an integrated spacecraft platform optimized for Astra’s launch vehicle and spacecraft. The goal is to allow our customers to focus on developing innovative payloads rather than designing or developing satellite buses or flying satellites.

 

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Shares of our Class  A common stock to be issued upon exercise of all Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants

15,333,303 shares. As of the date of this prospectus, all Warrants have been redeemed and no Warrants are outstanding. See “ Use of Proceeds .”

Shares of our Class A common stock

208,614,084 shares(1)

Use of proceeds

In December 2021, the Company completed redemption (the “Redemption”) of all of its outstanding Warrants to purchase shares of the Company’s Class A common stock that were issued under the Warrant Agreement. In connection with the Redemption, the holders of 9,413,895 Public Warrants and 5,333,333 Private Placement Warrants elected to receive, in lieu of the redemption price, an aggregate 3,775,709 shares of Class A common stock at 0.2560374 shares of Class A common stock per Warrant. A total of 586,075 Public Warrants remained unexercised as of the date of the Redemption and the Company redeemed the Public Warrants for a redemption price of $0.10 per redeemable Warrant, or an aggregate redemption price of $58,607.50. We received no proceeds in connection with the Redemption.

 

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Resale of Class A common stock and Warrants Shares of Class A common stock offered by the Selling Securityholders (including 127,454,054 outstanding shares of Class A common stock, 56,239,188 shares of Class A common stock issuable upon conversion of Class B common stock and 5,333,333 shares of Class A common stock that may be issued upon exercise of warrants)

189,026,575 shares. As of the date of this prospectus, all Warrants have been redeemed and no Warrants are outstanding. See “ Use of Proceeds .”

Warrants offered by the Selling Securityholders (representing the Private Placement Warrants)

5,333,333 warrants. As of the date of this prospectus, all Warrants have been redeemed and no Warrants are outstanding. See “ Use of Proceeds .”

Exercise price

$11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as described herein.

Redemption

The warrants are redeemable in certain circumstances. See “ Description of Securities-Warrants ” for further discussion.

Lock-up agreements

Certain of our stockholders are subject to certain restrictions on transfer until the termination of applicable lock-up periods. See “ Securities Act Restrictions on Resale of Securities-Lock-up Agreements ” for further discussion.

Ticker symbol

Our Class A common stock is listed on Nasdaq under the symbol “ASTR”. As of the date hereof, all of our warrants have been redeemed and are no longer listed on a securities exchange.

(1)	The number of shares of Class A common stock outstanding is based on 208,614,084 shares of Class A common stock outstanding as of April 21, 2022 and does not include:

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48,499,435 shares of Class A common stock reserved and available for issuance for awards in accordance with the 2021 Equity Incentive Plan (the “Incentive Plan”);

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7,478,104 shares of Class A common stock reserved and available for issuance for awards in accordance with the 2021 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (the “ESPP”);

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55,539,188 shares of Class A common stock issuable upon conversion (on a one-for-one basis) of shares of our Class B common stock held by the Astra Founders; and

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5,117,517 shares of Class A common stock that may be issued upon the achievement of performance milestones specified in the Apollo Merger Agreement.

 

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Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which represent challenges that we face in connection with the successful implementation of our strategy and growth of our business. The occurrence of one or more of the events or circumstances described herein under this section, alone or in combination with other events or circumstances, may have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flows, financial condition and results of operations.

A summary of the material risks affecting our business, operations and financial results include the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The success of our launch and space services offerings will depend on our ability to successfully and regularly deliver customer satellites into orbit. In November 2021, we successfully launched launch vehicle LV0007 to an inclination of 86.0 degrees at an altitude of 500 km and demonstrated orbital placement of test payload. Our data from this launch suggest that we achieve sufficient orbital velocity to successfully inject a satellite into orbit and serve as an opportunity to learn from the experience and to make further refinements to the design and manufacturing processes used to construct our launch vehicles and rockets. On February 10, 2022, we launched launch vehicle LV0008. After a nominal first stage flight, the payload fairing did not fully deploy prior to the upper stage ignition due to an electrical issue which, together with a software issue, resulted in the upper stage not reaching orbit and the end of the mission. On March 15, 2022, we successfully launched launch vehicle LV0009 and confirmed our first delivery of customer payloads into Earth orbit.

The success of our strategy depends on our ability to successfully upgrade our rockets, launch vehicles, spacecraft, and related technology which may require significant adjustments to the design, manufacturing process and performance to achieve intended technological and performance goals. There is no guarantee that our planned subsequent commercial launches will be successful. While we have built operational processes to ensure that the design, manufacture, performance and servicing of our launch vehicles and rockets meet rigorous performance goals, there can be no assurance that we will not experience operational or process failures and other problems during our planned launches. Any failures or setbacks could harm our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation.

We have incurred significant losses since our inception. We incurred net losses of $257.8 million, $68.3 million and $53.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively. While we have generated

 

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limited income to date, we have only begun our commercial launch activities and space product sales in 2022, and it is difficult for us to predict our future operating results. As a result, our losses may be larger than anticipated, and we may not achieve profitability when expected, or at all, and even if we do, we may not be able to maintain or increase profitability.

We expect our operating expenses to increase over the next several years as we commence commercial launch activities in 2022, continue to refine and streamline our design and manufacturing processes for our launch vehicles, increase the payload of our rockets, make technical improvements, increase our flight cadence, hire additional employees and continue research and development efforts relating to new products and technologies, including our space services. These efforts may be more costly than we expect and may not result in increased revenue or growth in our business. Any failure to increase our revenue sufficiently to keep pace with our investments and other expenses could prevent us from achieving or maintaining profitability or positive cash flow. Furthermore, if our future growth and operating performance fail to meet investor or analyst expectations, or if we have future negative cash flow or losses resulting from our investment in acquiring customers or expanding our operations, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We expect that our success will be highly dependent, especially in the foreseeable future, on our ability to effectively forecast, market and sell our launch services for small LEO satellites and space products. We have limited experience in forecasting, marketing and selling these services and products, and if we are unable to use our current or future sales organization effectively in order to adequately target and engage our potential customers, our business may be adversely affected.

We also expect that our success will be highly dependent on our ability to convert contracted revenues and our pipeline of potential contracts into actual revenues. We have received interest from a wide range of customers across various satellite applications or use cases. Our contracted revenues and our estimated pipeline may not fully convert into actual revenues because certain of our customers have the right to terminate their contracts if we do not achieve certain milestones. We may not meet these milestones, in which case the value of our contracted revenues may be significantly lower than our current estimates. Additionally, if we are unable to keep up with the demand for our launch services from a production and delivery perspective, we may not be in a position to deliver on our contracted revenues or our pipeline of potential contracts.

We remain in active discussions with potential customers and anticipate an increase in contracted revenue as the small satellite and satellite constellation markets continue to develop. Our success depends, in part, on our ability to attract new customers in a cost-effective manner. Notwithstanding our estimated contracted revenue, we expect that we will need to make significant investments in order to attract new customers. Our sales growth is dependent upon our ability to implement strategic initiatives, and these initiatives may not be effective in generating sales growth. In addition, marketing campaigns, which we have not historically utilized, can be expensive and may not result in the acquisition of customers in a cost-effective manner, if at all. Further, as our brand becomes more widely known, future marketing campaigns or brand content may not attract new customers at the same rate as past campaigns or brand content. If we are unable to attract new customers, our business, financial condition and results of operations will be harmed.

in-space

 

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customers, prime contractors, or acquirers, or target of acquisitions. Our estimates for the total addressable launch market and satellite market are based on a number of internal and third-party estimates, including our contracted revenue, the number of potential customers who have expressed interest in our launch services, assumed prices and production costs for our launch vehicles, assumed flight cadence, our ability to leverage our current manufacturing and operational processes and general market conditions. While we believe our assumptions and the data underlying our estimates are reasonable at this date and time, these assumptions and estimates may not be correct and the conditions supporting our assumptions or estimates may change at any time, thereby reducing the predictive accuracy of these underlying factors. As a result, our estimates of the potential customers, annual total addressable market for our services, as well as the expected growth rate for the total addressable market for our services, may prove to be incorrect. Further should any of our customers be acquired by one of our competitors that could impact our future revenue and prospects as those customers may decide not to continue to purchase our launch services.

Our current primary research and development objectives focus on the development of our existing and any additional launch vehicles, launch facilities and capabilities, spacecraft and related technology. If we do not complete this development in our anticipated timeframes, or at all, our ability to grow our business will be adversely affected. The successful development of our launch and spacecraft capabilities and related technology involves many uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control, including, but not limited to:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We manufacture and operate highly sophisticated launch vehicles, space products and conduct launch activities that depend on complex technology. Although there have been and will continue to be technological advances in spaceflight, our operations remain an inherently hazardous and risky activity. Launch failures, explosions and other accidents during manufacturing, on launch or during flight have occurred and will likely occur in the future.

While we have built operational processes to ensure that the design, manufacture, performance and servicing of our launch vehicles, space products and related technologies meet rigorous quality standards, there can be no assurance that we will not experience operational or process failures and other problems, including through manufacturing or design defects, cyber-attacks or other intentional acts, that could result in potential safety risks. We may experience a total loss of our launch vehicle and our customers’ payloads if there is an accident or failure at launch or during the journey into space, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition or reputation. For some missions, we or our customers can elect to buy launch insurance, which can reduce our monetary losses from any launch failure, but even in this case we will have losses associated with our inability to test our technology in space and delays with further technology development. Any insurance we or our customers have may not be adequate to cover our or their loss, respectively.

Any actual or perceived safety or reliability issues may result in significant reputational harm to our businesses, in addition to tort liability, maintenance, increased safety infrastructure and other costs that may arise. Such issues could result in delaying or cancelling planned launches, increased regulation or other systemic consequences. Our inability to meet our safety standards or adverse publicity affecting our reputation as a result of accidents, mechanical failures, damages to customer property or medical complications could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation.

We expect that our success will be highly dependent on our ability to convert contracted revenues and our pipeline of potential contracts into actual revenues. Our contracted revenues and our estimated pipeline may not fully convert into actual revenues because certain of our customers have the right to terminate their contracts if we do not achieve certain milestones, or other termination rights. We may not meet these milestones, in which case the value of our contracted revenues may be significantly lower than our current estimates.

Some of our existing customer contracts include provisions allowing the customers to terminate the contracts for convenience, some with a termination penalty for at least the amounts already paid, or to terminate the contracts for cause (for example, if we do not achieve certain milestones on a timely basis). If any of our significant customer contracts are terminated and not replaced, our results of operations may differ materially and adversely from those anticipated. In addition, our contracts with government customers often contain provisions with additional rights and remedies favorable to such customers that are not typically found in commercial contracts. As a result, we may not receive revenue from these orders, and any contracted revenue we report may not be indicative of our future actual revenue.

Many events may cause a delay in our ability to fulfill our existing or future orders, or cause planned launches or deliveries to not be completed at all, some of which may be out of our control, including unexpected weather patterns, maintenance issues, natural disasters, changes in governmental regulations or in the status of our regulatory approvals or applications or other events that force us to cancel or reschedule launches, which could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

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In November 2021, we successfully launched launch vehicle LV0007 to an inclination of 86.0 degrees at an altitude of 500 km and demonstrated orbital placement of test payload. Our data from this launch suggest that we achieve sufficient orbital velocity to successfully inject a satellite into orbit and serve as an opportunity to learn from the experience and to make further refinements to the design and manufacturing processes used to construct our launch vehicles and rockets. Although our November 2021 launch was a success, we may not be successful in reaching space and achieving sufficient orbital velocity during our subsequent launches planned. For example, on February 10, 2022, we launched launch vehicle LV0008. After a nominal first stage flight, the payload fairing did not fully deploy prior to the upper stage ignition due to an electrical issue which, together with a software issue, resulted in the upper stage not reaching orbit and the end of the mission. On March 15, 2022, we successfully launched launch vehicle LV0009 and confirmed our first delivery of customer payloads into Earth orbit. If we fail to continue to successfully inject payloads into orbit, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely impacted.

As part of our strategy, we plan to increase the maximum payload capacity of our launch vehicle to meet the customer needs and demands, which would make us a more compelling alternative for LEO constellation deployment and satellite replenishment. This payload capacity improvement will come from numerous improvements, enhancements and modifications to our rocket. We may not be successful in our efforts to make improvements to our rocket to achieve the full increase in payload capacity, and if we are unable to demonstrate our ability launch heavier satellites to LEO, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely impacted.

We have previously experienced, and may experience in the future, delays or other complications in the design, manufacture, launch, production, delivery and servicing ramp of new launch vehicles, spacecraft and related technology. If delays like this arise or recur, if our remediation measures and process changes do not continue to be successful or if we experience issues with planned manufacturing improvements or design and safety, we could experience issues in sustaining the ramp of our spaceflight system or delays in increasing production further.

If we encounter difficulties in scaling our delivery or servicing capabilities, if we fail to develop and successfully commercialize our launch vehicles, spacecraft and related technologies, if we fail to develop such technologies before our competitors, or if such technologies fail to perform as expected, are inferior to those of our competitors or are perceived as less safe than those of our competitors, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely impacted.

We face intense competition in the commercial space market and amongst our competitors. Currently, our primary competitors in the commercial launch market are SpaceX, RocketLab, United Launch Alliance, and Arianespace. In addition, we are aware of a significant number of entities actively engaged in developing commercial launch capabilities for small and medium sized payloads, including Virgin Orbit, Relativity, ABL, and Firefly, among others. Many of our current and potential competitors are larger and have substantially greater financial or other resources than we currently have or expect to have in the future, and thus may be better positioned to exploit the market need for small payloads and targeted orbital delivery, which is the focus of our business. They may also be able to devote greater resources to the development of their current and future technologies, which could overlap with our technologies, or the promotion and sale of their products and services. Our competitors could offer small launch vehicles at lower prices, which could undercut our business

 

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strategy and potential competitive edge. Our current and potential competitors may also establish cooperative or strategic relationships amongst themselves or with third parties that may further enhance their resources and offerings relative to ours. Further, it is possible that domestic or foreign companies or governments, some with greater experience in the aerospace industry or greater financial resources than we possess, will seek to provide products or services that compete directly or indirectly with ours in the future. Any such foreign competitor, for example, could benefit from subsidies from, or other protective measures by, its home country.

We believe our ability to compete successfully as a commercial provider of launch and space services does and will depend on number of factors, which may change in the future due to increased competition, including the price of our products and services, consumer satisfaction for the experiences we offer, and the frequency and availability of our products and services. If we are unable to compete successfully, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

The success of our business depends in part on effectively managing and maintaining our commercial launch services, space products, manufacturing additional launch vehicles and spacecraft, conducting a sufficient number of launches to meet customer demand and providing customers with an experience that meets or exceeds their expectations. Even if we succeed in developing launch vehicles or producing space products consistent with our targeted timeline, we could thereafter fail to develop the ability to produce these vehicles or products at quantity with a quality management system that ensures that each unit performs as required. Any delay in our ability to produce launch vehicles or space products at rate and with a reliable quality management system could have a material adverse effect on our business.

If our current or future launch services or space products do not meet expected performance or quality standards, including with respect to customer safety and satisfaction, this could cause operational delays. Further, launch operations within restricted airspace requires advance scheduling and coordination with government agencies and range owners and other users, and any high priority national defense assets will have priority in the use of these resources, which may impact our cadence of our launch operations or could result in cancellations, launch facility transfers, additional costs or rescheduling. Any operational or manufacturing delays or other unplanned changes to our ability to conduct our launches or manufacture our products could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If our operations continue to grow as planned, of which there can be no assurance, we will need to expand our sales and marketing, research and development, customer and commercial strategy, products and services, supply, and manufacturing and distribution functions. We will also need to continue to leverage our manufacturing and operational systems and processes, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to scale the business and the manufacture of spacecraft as currently planned or within the planned timeframe. The continued expansion of our business may also require additional manufacturing and operational facilities, as well as space for administrative support, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to find suitable locations or partners for the manufacture and operation of our launch vehicles.

Our continued growth could increase the strain on our resources, and we could experience operating difficulties, including difficulties in hiring, training and managing an increasing number of employees, finding manufacturing capacity to produce our launch vehicles, rockets, spacecraft, space products and related equipment, and delays in production and launches. These difficulties may result in the erosion of our brand image, divert the attention of management and key employees and impact financial and operational results. In addition, in order to continue to

 

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expand our presence around the globe, we expect to incur substantial expenses as we continue to attempt to streamline our manufacturing process, increase our launch cadence, hire more employees, and continue research and development efforts relating to new products and technologies and expand internationally. If we are unable to drive commensurate growth, these costs, which include lease commitments, headcount and capital assets, could result in decreased margins, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are at risk of adverse publicity stemming from any public incident involving our company, our people, or our brand, or our competitors or customers. If our launch vehicles, spacecraft or space products, those of one of our competitors, or satellites of our customers were to be involved in a public incident, accident, or catastrophe, this could create an adverse public perception of launch or manufacturing activities and result in decreased customer demand for launch and spacecraft services, which could cause a material adverse effect on our business, financial conditions, and results of operations. Further, if our launch vehicles or rockets were to be involved in a public incident, accident, or catastrophe, we could be exposed to significant reputational harm or potential legal liability. Any reputational harm to our business or industry could cause customers with existing contracts with us to cancel their contracts and could significantly impact our ability to make future sales. The insurance we carry may be inapplicable or inadequate to cover any such incident, accident or catastrophe. In the event that our insurance is inapplicable or not adequate, we may be forced to bear substantial losses from such incident, adverse media, or accident.

Part of our strategy involves increasing our launch capability and approaching a more frequent than monthly launch capability by 2025. Our ability to achieve a more frequent than monthly launch capability by 2025 will depend on our ability to add new launch sites. We currently operate launch sites at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska, and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and we expect to enter into a variety of arrangements to secure additional launch sites, which may include ownership, leasing, licensing, and permitting in the United States and outside the United States. We have in the past and may in the

 

22

future experience delays in our efforts to secure additional launch sites around the globe based upon our customers’ inclination needs. Challenges as a result of regulatory processes or in our ability to secure the necessary permissions to establish these launch sites could delay our ability to achieve our target cadence and could adversely affect our business.

Our ability to manufacture our launch vehicles is dependent upon sufficient availability of raw materials and supplied components, which we secure from a limited number of suppliers. Our reliance on suppliers to secure these raw materials and supplied components exposes us to volatility in the prices and availability of these materials. We may not be able to obtain sufficient supply of raw materials or supplied components, on favorable terms or at all, which could result in delays in manufacture of our spacecraft or increased costs.

In addition, we have in the past and may in the future experience delays in manufacture or operation as we go through the requalification process with any replacement third-party supplier, as well as the limitations imposed by ITAR and other restrictions on transfer of sensitive technologies. Additionally, the imposition of tariffs on such raw materials or supplied components could have a material adverse effect on our operations. Prolonged disruptions in the supply of any of our key raw materials or components, difficulty qualifying new sources of supply, implementing use of replacement materials or new sources of supply or any volatility in prices could have a material adverse effect on our ability to operate in a cost-efficient, timely manner and could cause us to experience cancellations or delays of scheduled launches, customer cancellations or reductions in our prices and margins, any of which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Astra, as a large accelerated filer would be subject to the SEC’s internal control over financial reporting management and auditor attestation requirements for our next fiscal year ending December 31, 2022 if we continue to be a large accelerated filer as determined as of the end of June 30, 2022. We may not be able to complete our evaluation, testing and any required remediation in a timely fashion. In addition, our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of poor design and changes in our business, including increased complexity resulting from any international expansion. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting could adversely affect the results of assessments by our independent registered public accounting firm and their attestation reports.

If we are unable to certify the effectiveness of our internal controls, or if our internal controls have material weaknesses, we may not detect errors in a timely manner, our financial statements could be misstated, we could be subject to regulatory scrutiny and a loss of confidence by stakeholders, which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations and adversely affect the market price of our securities.

We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting as of and for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of

 

23

our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Specifically, the material weaknesses we have identified are:

 

 

 

 

 

We did not design and implement an effective risk assessment, including: (i) identifying, assessing, and communicating appropriate objectives, (ii) identifying and analyzing risks to achieve these objectives, and (iii) identifying and assessing changes in the business that could impact our system of internal controls.

We did not design and implement effective control activities as the control activities did not adequately (i) address relevant risks, (ii) provide evidence of performance, (iii) provide appropriate segregation of duties, or (iv) operate at a level of precision to identify all potentially material errors.

We did not generate and provide quality information and communication relating to communicating accurate information internally and externally, including providing information pursuant to objectives, responsibilities, and functions of internal control.

We did not design and implement effective monitoring activities as we did not maintain effective monitoring controls to ascertain whether the components of internal control are present and functioning.

We are in the process of designing and implementing measures to improve our internal control over financial reporting to remediate the material weaknesses described above, primarily by implementing additional review procedures within our accounting and finance department, hiring additional personnel within the Company’s accounting and finance function, designing and implementing information technology and application controls in our financially significant systems, providing internal resources with enhanced access to accounting literature and research materials, engaging additional external accounting experts to supplement our internal resources and increasing communication with third-party professionals with whom we consult regarding the application of accounting standards on complex transactions and instruments. While we are designing and implementing

 

24

measures to remediate the material weaknesses, we cannot predict the success of such measures or the outcome of our assessment of these measures at this time. We can give no assurance that these measures will remediate the weaknesses in internal control or that additional material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting will not be identified in the future. Our failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could result in errors in our financial statements that may lead to a restatement of our financial statements or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations.

10-K

The Company, in consultation with the Audit Committee and Company’s management, determined that it was appropriate to restate our previously filed financial statements for the period ended June 30, 2021. As part of the restatement, we identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting.

As a result of such material weakness and such restatement, we face potential for litigation or other disputes which may include, among others, claims invoking the federal and state securities laws, contractual claims or other claims arising from the restatement and material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and the preparation of our financial statements. As of the date of this prospectus, Astra is currently a defendant in two actions alleging violations of federal securities laws. Please see “Legal Proceedings” below for more information about these actions. We can provide no assurance that additional litigation or dispute will not arise in the future. Any such litigation or dispute, whether successful or not, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We are subject to federal, state, local, and foreign laws, regulations and ordinances relating to the protection of the environment, including those relating to emissions to the air, discharges to surface and subsurface waters, safe drinking water, greenhouse gases and the management of hazardous substances, oils and waste materials. Federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment may require a current or previous owner or operator of real estate to investigate and remediate hazardous or toxic substances or petroleum product releases at or from the property which could result in operational disruptions. Under federal law, generators of waste materials, and current and former owners or operators of facilities, can be subject to liability for investigation and remediation costs at locations that have been identified as requiring response actions. Compliance with environmental laws and regulations can require significant expenditures. In addition, we could incur costs or have operational disruptions to comply with such current or future laws and regulations, the violation of which could lead to substantial fines, penalties and operational costs.

We may have to pay governmental entities or third parties for property damage and for investigation and remediation costs that they incurred in connection with any contamination at our current and former properties without regard to whether we knew of or caused the presence of the contaminants. We may also have to suspend operations until we have remediated and the investigation is closed. Liability under these laws may be strict, joint

 

25

clean-up

In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus was reported to have surfaced in Wuhan, China, and it has since spread throughout other parts of the world, including the United States. Any outbreak of contagious diseases or other adverse public health developments could have a material adverse effect on our business operations. These impacts to our operations have included, and could again in the future include, disruptions or restrictions on the ability of our employees’ and customers’ to travel or our ability to pursue collaborations and other business transactions, travel to customers and/or conduct live demonstrations of our products and oversee the activities of our third-party manufacturers and suppliers. We may also be impacted by the temporary closure of the facilities of suppliers, manufacturers or customers.

COVID-19,

COVID-19,

COVID-19

Acquisitions involve numerous risks, any of which could harm our business and negatively affect our financial condition and results of operations. The success of our acquisitions will depend in part on our ability to realize the anticipated business opportunities from combining their and our operations in an efficient and effective manner. These integration processes could take longer than anticipated and could result in the loss of key employees, the disruption of each company’s ongoing businesses, tax costs or inefficiencies, or inconsistencies in standards, controls, information technology systems, procedures and policies, any of which could adversely affect our ability to maintain relationships with customers, employees or other third parties, or our ability to

 

26

achieve the anticipated benefits of the acquisitions, and could harm our financial performance. If we are unable to successfully or timely integrate the operations of acquired company with our business, we may incur unanticipated liabilities and be unable to realize the revenue growth, synergies and other anticipated benefits resulting from the acquisitions, or fully offset the costs of the acquisition, and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.

10-K,

We operate out of our headquarters in Alameda, California, which consists of approximately 285,000 square feet leased from the City of Alameda. The campus includes two primary buildings. This includes the Skyhawk Development and Production Facility, with a fully built out machine shop, production facilities, and offices for administrative responsibilities as well as research and development, and the Orion Engine Testing Facility for rocket engine testing, research, and development that was originally constructed by the U.S. Navy for jet engine

 

27

testing. As part of our growth strategy, we anticipate finishing out additional space in the Skyhawk Development and Production Facility to support the launch services offerings, as well as the build out of facilities for our space services offerings.

The building out of our Alameda campus and the construction of additional launch sites may require significant capital expenditures to develop, and in the future we may be required to make similar expenditures to expand, improve or construct adequate facilities for our launch services. In addition, there is no guarantee that we will be able to secure a long-term lease from the City of Alameda for our Alameda campus. In addition, as our Alameda campus and any other facilities we may utilize mature, our business will require capital expenditures for the maintenance, renovation and improvement of such existing locations to remain competitive. This creates an ongoing need for capital, and, to the extent we cannot fund capital expenditures from cash flows from operations, we will need to borrow or otherwise obtain funds. If we cannot access the capital we need, we may not be able to execute on our growth strategy, take advantage of future opportunities or respond to competitive pressures. If the costs of funding new locations or renovations or enhancements at existing locations exceed budgeted amounts or the time for building or renovation is longer than anticipated, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

pre-payment

 

28

We are subject to a wide variety of laws and regulations relating to various aspects of our business, including with respect to our launch system operations, employment and labor, health care, tax, privacy and data security, health and safety, and environmental issues. Laws and regulations at the foreign, federal, state and local levels frequently change, especially in relation to new and emerging industries, and we cannot always reasonably predict the impact from, or the ultimate cost of compliance with, current or future regulatory or administrative changes. We monitor these developments and devote a significant amount of management’s time and external resources towards compliance with these laws, regulations and guidelines, and such compliance places a significant burden on management’s time and other resources, and it may limit our ability to expand into certain jurisdictions. Moreover, changes in law, the imposition of new or additional regulations or the enactment of any new or more stringent legislation that impacts our business could require us to change the way we operate and could have a material adverse effect on our sales, profitability, cash flows and financial condition.

Failure to comply with these laws, such as with respect to obtaining and maintaining licenses, certificates, authorizations and permits critical for the operation of our business, may result in civil penalties or private lawsuits, or the suspension or revocation of licenses, certificates, authorizations or permits, which would prevent us from operating our business. For example, conducting commercial space launches in the United States require licenses and permits from certain agencies of the Department of Transportation, including the FAA, and review by other agencies of the U.S. Government, including the Department of Defense, Department of State, NASA, and FCC. License approval includes an interagency review of safety, operational, national security, and foreign policy and international obligations implications, as well as a review of foreign ownership. Delays in FAA action allowing us to conduct commercial space launches could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results.

re-export

We aim to mass-produce the world’s first daily space delivery system. A component of our near-term strategy involves increasing our launch cadence by accelerating our development and production efforts and adding additional launch sites. Our ability to achieve this increased launch cadence within the timeframe in which we hope to do so will depend on our ability to secure the necessary regulatory licenses from the FAA, the FCC and other regulatory authorities. To our knowledge, the applicable regulatory authorities to date have not granted such licenses to a company endeavoring to launch rockets with such frequency, and as a result our business is dependent upon a regulatory framework that is untested and unprecedented. Our failure to obtain the licenses necessary to support our anticipated launch cadence, or any delays or hurdles that present in our interactions with the FAA, the FCC or other regulatory authorities, could impact our ability to grow our business, could delay our ability to execute on our existing and future customer contracts and could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

 

29

re-export,

re-export

non-monetary

Pursuant to these foreign trade control laws and regulations, we are required, among other things, to (i) maintain a registration under the ITAR, (ii) determine the proper licensing jurisdiction and export classification of products, software, and technology, and (iii) obtain licenses or other forms of U.S. government authorization to engage in the conduct of our spaceflight business. The authorization requirements include the need to get permission to release controlled technology to foreign person employees and other foreign persons. Changes in U.S. foreign trade control laws and regulations, or reclassifications of our products or technologies, may restrict our operations. The inability to secure and maintain necessary licenses and other authorizations could negatively impact our ability to compete successfully or to operate our spaceflight business as planned. Any changes in the export control regulations or U.S. government licensing policy, such as those necessary to implement U.S. government commitments to multilateral control regimes, may restrict our operations. Given the great discretion the government has in issuing or denying such authorizations to advance U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, there can be no assurance we will be successful in our future efforts to secure and maintain necessary licenses, registrations, or other U.S. government regulatory approvals.

non-controlling

The occurrence of one or more natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, floods and earthquakes, unusual weather conditions, epidemic outbreaks, terrorist attacks or disruptive political events in certain regions where our facilities are located, or where our third-party contractors’ and suppliers’ facilities are located, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Severe weather, such as rainfall, snowfall or extreme temperatures, may impact the ability of our launch services to be carried out as planned,

 

30

resulting in additional expense to reschedule such service, thereby reducing our sales and profitability. Terrorist attacks, actual or threatened acts of war or the escalation of current hostilities, or any other military or trade disruptions impacting our domestic or foreign suppliers of components of our products, may impact our operations by, among other things, causing supply chain disruptions and increases in commodity prices, which could adversely affect our raw materials or transportation costs. These events also could cause or act to prolong an economic recession in the United States or abroad. These events also could impact one or more of our suppliers or contractors or result in the closure of any of their facilities or our facilities, which would make it difficult to continue our commercial launch activities as planned or thereafter increase our launch cadence. These events may also delay our customers’ plans to launch their payloads. In addition, the disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place currently are limited and are unlikely to prove adequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans and, more generally, any of these events could cause consumer confidence and spending to decrease, which could adversely impact our commercial launch operations.

Because our offerings are currently concentrated on commercial launch and space services, we are vulnerable to changes in consumer preferences or other market changes. The global economy has in the past, and will in the future, experience recessionary periods and periods of economic instability. During such periods, our potential customers may choose not to expend the amounts that we anticipate based on our expectations with respect to the addressable market for launch and space services. There could be a number of other effects from adverse general business and economic conditions on our business, including insolvency of any of our third-party suppliers or contractors, decreased consumer confidence, decreased discretionary spending and reduced customer or governmental demand for LEO launch vehicles and satellites, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

While our primary focus for the foreseeable future will be on commencing our commercial launch activities, increasing our launch cadence and increasing the payload capacity of our rockets, we may also invest significant resources in developing new technologies, services, products and offerings including space services offerings. However, we may not realize the expected benefits of these investments. These anticipated technologies are unproven and these products or technologies may never materialize or be commercialized in a way that would allow us to generate ancillary revenue streams. Relatedly, if such technologies become viable offerings in the future, we may be subject to competition from our competitors within the commercial launch and satellite industries, some of which may have substantially greater monetary and knowledge resources than we have and expect to have in the future to devote to the development of these technologies. Such competition or any limitations on our ability to take advantage of such technologies could impact our market share, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Such research and development initiatives may also have a high degree of risk and involve unproven business strategies and technologies with which we have limited operating or development experience. They may involve claims and liabilities (including, but not limited to, personal injury claims), expenses, regulatory challenges and other risks that we may not be able to anticipate. There can be no assurance that customer demand for such initiatives will exist or be sustained at the levels that we anticipate, or that any of these initiatives will gain sufficient traction or market acceptance to generate sufficient revenue to offset any new expenses or liabilities associated with these new investments. Further, any such research and development efforts could distract management from current operations, and would divert capital and other resources from our more established offerings and technologies. Even if we were to be successful in developing new products, services, offerings or technologies, regulatory authorities may subject us to new rules or restrictions in response to our innovations that may increase our expenses or prevent us from successfully commercializing new products, services, offerings or technologies.

 

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As part of our growth strategy for our launch services, we aim to identify launch sites outside of the United States. As we expand internationally, we expect that we would be subject to additional risks related to entering into international business relationships, including:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

break-ins,

From time to time, we may evaluate potential strategic acquisitions of businesses, including partnerships or joint ventures with third parties. We may not be successful in identifying acquisition, partnership and joint venture

 

32

candidates. In addition, we may not be able to continue the operational success of such businesses or successfully finance or integrate any businesses that we acquire or with which we form a partnership or joint venture. We may have potential write-offs of acquired assets and/or an impairment of any goodwill recorded as a result of acquisitions. Furthermore, the integration of any acquisition may divert management’s time and resources from our core business and disrupt our operations or may result in conflicts with our business. Any acquisition, partnership or joint venture may not be successful, may reduce our cash reserves, may negatively affect our earnings and financial performance and, to the extent financed with the proceeds of debt, may increase our indebtedness. We cannot ensure that any acquisition, partnership or joint venture we make will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our operations are subject to many hazards and operational risks inherent to our business, including general business risks, product liability and damage to third parties, our infrastructure or properties that may be caused by fires, floods and other natural disasters, power losses, telecommunications failures, terrorist attacks, human errors and similar events. Additionally, our manufacturing operations are hazardous at times and may expose us to safety risks, including environmental risks and health and safety hazards to our employees or third parties.

Moreover, our operations are primarily based in and around our Alameda, California campus, where our machine shop, production facilities, administrative offices, and research and development functions are located. Our Alameda, California campus also houses our facility used for rocket engine testing, research, and development. In addition, we also operate a facility in Mountain View, California and launch facilities in Kodiak, Alaska and Cape Carnival, Florida. Any significant interruption due to any of the above hazards and operational to the manufacturing or operation of our facilities, including from weather conditions, growth constraints, performance by third-party providers (such as electric, utility or telecommunications providers), failure to properly handle and use hazardous materials, failure of computer systems, power supplies, fuel supplies, infrastructure damage, disagreements with the owners of the land on which our facilities are located, or damage sustained to our launch pad could result in manufacturing delays or the delay or cancellation of our planned commercial launches and, as a result, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, our insurance coverage may be inadequate to cover our liabilities related to such hazards or operational risks. Moreover, we may not be able to maintain adequate insurance in the future at rates we consider reasonable and commercially justifiable, and insurance may not continue to be available on terms as favorable as our current arrangements. The occurrence of a significant uninsured claim, or a claim in excess of the insurance coverage limits maintained by us, could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

non-disclosure

 

33

Further, the laws of some countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights in some foreign countries may be inadequate. To the extent we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying and use of our technologies and proprietary information may increase. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing upon, misappropriating or otherwise violating our technology and intellectual property.

know-how

non-disclosure

non-disclosure

Our success depends in part upon successful prosecution, maintenance, enforcement and protection of our owned and licensed intellectual property.

To protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect these rights. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our trade secrets. Such litigation could be costly, time consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources, could disrupt our business, as well as have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. The results of intellectual property litigation are difficult to predict and may require us to stop using certain technologies or offering certain services or may result in significant damage awards or settlement costs. There is no guarantee that any action to defend, maintain or enforce our owned or licensed intellectual property rights will be successful, and an adverse result in any such proceeding could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.

Even if these matters do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor or without significant cash settlements, these matters, and the time and resources necessary to litigate or resolve them, could divert the time and resources of our management team and harm our business, our operating results and our reputation.

 

34

pre-revenue

Part of our strategy is to market our launch services to key government customers. We expect we may derive limited revenue from contracts with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”) and the U.S. government and may enter into further contracts with the U.S. or foreign governments in the future, and this subjects us to statutes and regulations applicable to companies doing business with the U.S. government, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”). These U.S. government contracts customarily contain provisions that give the government substantial rights and remedies, many of which are not typically found in commercial contracts and which are unfavorable to contractors. For instance, most U.S. government agencies include provisions that allow the government to unilaterally terminate or modify contracts for convenience, in which case the counterparty to the contract may generally recover only its incurred or committed costs and settlement expenses and profit on work completed prior to the termination. If the government terminates a contract for default, the defaulting party may be liable for any extra costs incurred by the government in procuring undelivered items from another source.

Our government contracts may be subject to the approval of appropriations being made by the U.S. Congress to fund the expenditures under these contracts. In addition, government contracts normally contain additional requirements that may increase our costs of doing business, reduce our profits, and expose us to liability for failure to comply with these terms and conditions. These requirements include, for example:

 

 

 

 

Government contracts are also generally subject to greater scrutiny by the government, which can initiate reviews, audits and investigations regarding our compliance with government contract requirements. In addition, if we fail to comply with government contract laws, regulations and contract requirements, our contracts may be subject to termination, and we may be subject to financial and/or other liability under our contracts, the Federal Civil False Claims Act (including treble damages and other penalties), or criminal law. In particular, the False Claims Act’s “whistleblower” provisions also allow private individuals, including present and former employees, to sue on behalf of the U.S. government. Any penalties, damages, fines, suspension, or damages could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results.

If any customer were to unexpectedly terminate, cancel, or decline to exercise an option to renew with respect to one or more of our significant contracts for any reason, including as a result of our failure to meet certain performance milestones, or if a government customer were to suspend or debar us from doing business with such government, our business, financial condition, and results of operations would be materially harmed.

 

35

We collect, store, process, and use personal information and other customer data, and we rely in part on third parties that are not directly under our control to manage certain of these operations and to collect, store, process and use payment information. Due to the volume and sensitivity of the personal information and data we and these third parties manage and expect to manage in the future, as well as the nature of our customer base, the security features of our information systems are critical. A variety of federal, state and foreign laws and regulations govern the collection, use, retention, sharing and security of this information. Laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection and consumer protection are evolving and subject to potentially differing interpretations. These requirements may not be harmonized, may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another or may conflict with other rules or our practices. As a result, our practices may not have complied or may not comply in the future with all such laws, regulations, requirements and obligations.

We expect that new industry standards, laws and regulations will continue to be proposed regarding privacy, data protection and information security in many jurisdictions. We cannot yet determine the impact such future laws, regulations and standards may have on our business. Complying with these evolving obligations is costly.

non-compliance,

pre-checked

A significant data breach or any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with any federal, state or foreign privacy or consumer protection-related laws, regulations or other principles or orders to which we may be subject or other legal obligations relating to privacy or consumer protection could adversely affect our reputation, brand and business, and may result in claims, investigations, proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others or other penalties or liabilities or require us to change our operations and/or cease using certain data sets. Depending on the nature of the information compromised, we may also have obligations to notify users, law enforcement or payment companies about the incident and may need to provide some form of remedy, such as refunds, for the individuals affected by the incident.

 

36

Our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly, which makes it difficult for us to predict our future operating results. These fluctuations may occur due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control, including, but not limited to:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors for any period. If our revenue or operating results fall below the expectations of analysts or investors or below any guidance we may provide, or if the guidance we provide is below the expectations of analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Such a stock price decline could occur even when we have met any previously publicly stated guidance we may provide.

Because Astra has limited historical financial data and operates in a rapidly evolving market, any predictions about its future revenue and expenses may not be as accurate as they would be if it had a longer operating history or operated in a more developed market. Astra has encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies with limited operating histories in rapidly changing industries. If Astra’s assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which it uses to plan and operate its business, are incorrect or change, or if it does not address these risks successfully, its results of operations could differ materially from its expectations and its business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

in-space

 

37

Our success depends, in significant part, on the continued services of our senior management team and on our ability to attract, motivate, develop and retain a sufficient number of other highly skilled personnel, including engineers, manufacturing and quality assurance, design, finance, marketing, sales and support personnel. Our senior management team has extensive experience in the aerospace industry, and we believe that their depth of experience is instrumental to our continued success. The loss of any one or more members of our senior management team, for any reason, including resignation or retirement, could impair our ability to execute our business strategy and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Competition for qualified highly skilled personnel can be strong, and we can provide no assurance that we will be successful in attracting or retaining such personnel now or in the future. We have commenced commercial launch operations in early 2022, and our estimates of the required team size to support our estimated flight rates may require increases in staffing levels that may require significant capital expenditure. Further, any inability to recruit, develop and retain qualified employees may result in high employee turnover and may force us to pay significantly higher wages, which may harm our profitability. The loss of any key employee or our inability to recruit, develop and retain these individuals as needed, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

non-U.S.

non-U.S.

Non-U.S.

From time to time, we may become involved in various legal proceedings relating to matters incidental to the ordinary course of our business, supplier, customer, or relationships with third-parties, including intellectual property, commercial, product liability, employment, class action, whistleblower and other litigation and claims, and governmental and other regulatory investigations and proceedings. Such matters can be time-consuming, divert management’s attention and resources from the operation of our business, and cause us to incur significant expenses or liability or require us to change our business practices. Because of the potential risks, expenses and uncertainties of litigation, we may, from time to time, settle disputes, even where we believe that we have meritorious claims or defenses. Because litigation is inherently unpredictable, we cannot assure you that the results of any of these actions will not have a material adverse effect on our business. We are currently a defendant in two actions, alleging violations of federal securities laws. Please see “Legal Proceedings” below for more information about these actions. We can provide no assurance that additional litigation or dispute will not arise in the future. While we believe these actions are not meritorious, these actions (and any future litigation or dispute), whether successful or not, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Further, while we have insurance to cover the defense of the existing actions, the amount of our retention is $20 million and we will need to incur costs in that amount before we will be eligible for assistance from our insurer.

U.S. government contracts generally are subject to FAR, agency-specific regulations that supplement FAR, such as the Department of Defense’s Federal Acquisition Regulations, and other applicable laws, security

 

38

requirements, and regulations. These regulations impose a broad range of requirements, many of which are unique to U.S. government contracting, including various procurement, import and export, security, contract pricing and cost, contract termination and adjustments, mandatory disclosure, and audit requirements. Our failure to comply with these regulations, agency or government entity processes or opinions, and requirements could result in an inability to acquire government contracts, reductions of the value of contracts, contract modifications or termination, inability to bill and collect receivables from customers, and the assessment of penalties and fines that could lead to suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracting or subcontracting.

We are subject to complex and evolving U.S. tax laws and regulations, which might in the future make changes to corporate income tax rates, the treatment of foreign earnings, if any, or other income tax laws that could affect our future income tax provision and reduce our earnings while increasing the complexity, burden and cost of tax compliance.

Our determination of our tax liability is subject to review by applicable tax authorities. Any adverse outcome of such a review could harm our results of operations and financial condition. The determination of our tax liabilities requires significant judgement, and, in the ordinary course of business, there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is complex and uncertain. In addition, our future effective tax rates could be favorably or unfavorably affected by changes in tax rates, changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets or liabilities, the effectiveness of our tax planning strategies or changes in tax laws or their interpretation. Such changes could have an adverse effect on our financial condition.

Although we believe our estimates are reasonable, as a result of these and other factors, the ultimate amount of our tax obligations owed might differ from the amounts recorded in our consolidated financial statements and any such difference could harm our results of operations in future periods in which we change our estimates of our tax obligations or in which the ultimate tax outcome is determined.

pre-change

pre-change

Shares of our Class B common stock have 10 votes per share, while shares of our Class A common stock have one vote per share. Our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer (the “Astra Founders”), collectively, hold all of the issued and outstanding shares of our Class B common stock. Accordingly, the Astra Founders hold approximately seventy-three percent (73%) of the voting power of our capital stock and are able to control matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors, amendments of

 

39

our organizational documents and any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets or other major corporate transactions. The Astra Founders may have interests that differ from other investors and may vote in a way with which other investors disagree and which may be adverse to their interests. This concentrated control may have the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change in control of the Company, could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their capital stock as part of a sale of the Company, and might ultimately affect the market price of shares of our Class A common stock.

We cannot predict whether our dual class structure will result in a lower or more volatile market price of our Class A common stock or in adverse publicity or other adverse consequences. For example, certain index providers have announced restrictions on including companies with multiple-class share structures in certain of their indexes. Under these policies, our dual class capital structure would make us ineligible for inclusion in certain indices, and as a result, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and other investment vehicles that attempt to passively track those indices will not be investing in our stock. It is unclear what effect, if any, these policies will have on the valuations of publicly traded companies excluded from such indices, but it is possible that they may depress valuations, as compared to similar companies that are included. As a result, the market price of shares of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.

The market price of our common stock has in the past been, and is likely to continue in the future to be, volatile. During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, the Nasdaq closing price of one share of our Class A common stock reached a high of $21.15 and a low of $6.93. As of April 21, 2022, the closing share price of a share of our Class A common stock is $3.40. The volatility depends upon many factors, some of which are beyond our control, including:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One or more of these factors could cause a decline in the price of our Class A common stock. In addition, stock markets generally have experienced significant price and volume volatility. This volatility has had a substantial effect on the market prices of securities of many public companies for reasons frequently unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the specific companies.

Our organizational documents are governed by Delaware law. Certain provisions of Delaware law and of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws could discourage, delay, defer or prevent a merger, tender offer, proxy

 

40

contest or other change of control transaction that a stockholder might consider in its best interest, including those attempts that might result in a premium over the market price for the shares of Class A common stock held by our stockholders. These provisions provide for, among other things:

 

 

 

 

 

These anti-takeover provisions as well as certain provisions of Delaware law could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire the Company, even if the third party’s offer may be considered beneficial by many of our stockholders. As a result, our stockholders may be limited in their ability to obtain a premium for their shares. If prospective takeovers are not consummated for any reason, we may experience negative reactions from the financial markets, including negative impacts on the price of our common stock. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for our stockholders to elect directors of their choosing and to cause the Company to take other corporate actions that our stockholders desire.

 

41

All of the securities offered by the Selling Securityholders pursuant to this prospectus will be sold by the Selling Securityholders for their respective accounts. In December 2021, the holders of 9,413,895 Public Warrants and 5,333,333 Private Placement Warrants elected to receive, in lieu of the redemption price, an aggregate 3,775,709 shares of Class A common stock at 0.2560374 shares of Class A Common Stock per Warrant. A total of 586,075 Public Warrants remained unexercised as of December 27, 2021 and the Company redeemed the Public Warrants for a redemption price of $0.10 per Redeemable Warrant. As a result, there are no Warrants outstanding as of this prospectus. We did not receive any proceeds from the redemption of the Public and Private Placement Warrants.

Unless we inform you otherwise in a prospectus supplement or free writing prospectus, we intend to use the net proceeds from the exercise of the warrants for general corporate purposes including, but not limited to, working capital for operations, capital expenditures and future acquisitions. There is no assurance that the holders of the warrants will elect to exercise any or all of the warrants. To the extent that the warrants are exercised on a “cashless basis,” the amount of cash we would receive from the exercise of the warrants will decrease.

The Selling Securityholders will pay any underwriting discounts and commissions and expenses incurred by the Selling Securityholders for brokerage, accounting, tax or legal services or any other expenses incurred by the Selling Securityholders in disposing of the securities. We will bear the costs, fees and expenses incurred in effecting the registration of the securities covered by this prospectus, including all registration and filing fees, Nasdaq listing fees and fees and expenses of our counsel and our independent registered public accounting firm.

 

42

Astra’s mission is to launch a new generation of launch services and space services and products to improve life on Earth. These services and products are enabled by new constellations of small satellites in Low Earth Orbit (“LEO”), which have rapidly become smaller, cheaper, and many times more numerous than legacy satellites. Launch vehicles, however, have not evolved in the same way — most rockets remain focused on serving legacy satellites and human spaceflight missions. As a result, we believe existing launch vehicles are too large, expensive, infrequently launched, and insufficiently responsive to meet the needs of the evolving space market.

on-site,

co-located

We view launch services as the first phase of our product and service offerings, with the ultimate single goal of building the leading space platform under a one operating segment model and one reportable segment. We intend to expand our product and service offerings to LEO operators to include launch services, space products and space services to achieve our space services platform model. Our integrated space services platform will allow our customers to focus on innovative applications rather than investing in bespoke satellite development and separately contracting launch services. Further details of our current and expected future service offerings are provided below.

 

 

43

 

 

(“pre-combination

pre-combination

On July 1, 2021, we, through our wholly owned indirect subsidiary, merged with Apollo. The fair value of the consideration paid as of July 1, 2021, was $70.8 million, net of cash acquired (the “Apollo Merger”). Apollo designs, tests, manufactures and operates propulsion modules to enable satellites to orbit in space.

Transporter-2

On August 28, 2021, we conducted a test launch for the United States Space Force on our launch vehicle LV0006. The launch vehicle achieved an altitude of approximately 50 km before the range issued an all engine-shutdown command. The launch vehicle was not able to reach orbit.

non-geostationary

V-band

On November 20, 2021, we conducted our first commercial orbital launch for United States Space Force on our launch vehicle LV0007. The launch system successfully demonstrated the orbital placement of a test payload to an inclination of 86.0 degrees at an altitude of 500 km. The payload achieved an orbital velocity of 7.61 km/s. When we use the term “commercial orbital launch,” we mean a launch conducted pursuant to a license from the Federal Aviation Administration and we do not receive payment for some of our commercial orbital launches. Launch vehicle LV0007 took flight from the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska.

On November 26, 2021, the Company issued a notice of redemption to redeem all of its Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants (“Redeemable Warrants”) outstanding as of December 27, 2021. In connection with the redemption, the holders of 9,413,895 Public Warrants and 5,333,333 Private Placement Warrants elected to receive 3,775,709 shares of Class A common stock in lieu of the redemption price of 0.2560374 shares of Class A Common Stock per Warrant. A total of 586,075 Public Warrants remained unexercised as of

 

44

December 27, 2021 and the Company redeemed the Public Warrants for a redemption price of $0.10 per Redeemable Warrant, and aggregate of $0.1 million. The Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants were remeasured to fair value as of the exercise or redemption date, resulting in a gain of $25.7 million for year ended December 31, 2021, and classified within other income, net in the consolidated statements of operations.

low-earth

On March 15, 2022, we conducted an orbital launch for three customers of Spaceflight, Inc. and confirmed our first delivery of customer payloads into Earth orbit. Launch vehicle LV0009 took flight from the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska.

On April 12, 2022, we announced that LeoStella LLC had entered a contract with us to purchase multiple Astra Spacecraft Engines for LeoStella’s satellites.

turn-key

 

 

 

 

 

Our ability to achieve these goals and objectives by our planned timelines are conditional upon a number of factors, including our ability to successfully and timely develop our launch vehicles and our ability to effectively

 

45

market and sell our services and products. See the section entitled, “Risk Factors” in this prospectus and subsequent filings with the SEC for additional factors that could affect our ability to achieve these goals.

As of December 31, 2021, we have signed contracts for launch services. Our customers primarily include satellite operators, satellite manufacturers, government agencies and defense prime contractors. These signed contracts span over multiple customers and represents approximately 50 launches to be conducted beginning from year 2022 through year 2025. We have also entered into sales contracts with satellite operators and manufacturers for our space electric propulsion systems, which we expect to begin fulfilling in late 2022.

We expect a portion of our pipeline to continue to convert into new contacts for launch services and space products over the coming months. We believe that our traction to date is driven by our value proposition and direct marketing to potential customers. We note that a portion of this pipeline may not convert if we do not achieve certain milestones or if we are unable to keep up with the demand for our launch services from a production and delivery perspective.

We plan to scale and accelerate our sales and marketing efforts and leverage industry partnerships to grow our customer base. Additionally, as we execute on our upcoming launches, we expect existing customers to expand their contracts with us for the deployment of their future satellites. New service offerings and sales models will be introduced over time to increase market share.

While we are currently focused on market for small-satellite launch services and our space products, we are in the early stages of developing our space services offerings. Our potential customer base for this service has significant overlap with launch services.

 

 

 

 

46

Our employees are the cornerstone to our success. As of December 31, 2021, we had 324 employees, all of whom were full-time. Our workforce is primarily based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to joining our company, many of our employees had prior experience working for a wide variety of reputed commercial aviation, aerospace, high-technology and world-recognized organizations.

Our human capital management strategy includes identifying, recruiting, retaining, incentivizing and integrating our existing and new employees, advisors and consultants. The principal purposes of our cash and equity incentive plans are to attract, retain and reward personnel through the granting of cash-based and stock-based compensation awards, in order to increase stockholder value and the success of our company by motivating such individuals to perform to the best of their abilities and achieve our objectives.

Our management team is comprised of our chief executive officer and his six direct reports who, collectively, have management responsibility for our business. Our management team places significant focus and attention on matters concerning our human capital assets, particularly our diversity, capability development and succession planning. Accordingly, we regularly review employee development and succession plans for each of our functions to identify and develop our pipeline of talent. Across our broader population, approximately 20.7% of full-time employees are women and 39.4% belong to historically underrepresented groups. As we build out the team, we are also investing in the infrastructure needed for continuous professional development, feedback, performance management, and other aspects of a healthy, growth-oriented and high-performing work culture.

In order to conduct a launch, we must obtain a commercial space transportation license from the FAA. On August 18, 2021, the FAA granted a commercial space transportation license to us, allowing us to conduct flights of our launch vehicle (Rocket v3.0) from Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska to deliver customer payloads to LEO. This license is effective for launches on Rocket v3.0 through March 9, 2026. In addition, on February 4, 2022, the FAA granted us the first commercial space transportation license under Part 450, allowing for flights of our launch vehicle (Rocket v3.3) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to deliver customer payloads into LEO. This license is effective through January 4, 2027, for launches on Rocket v3.3. Unlike other commercial space transportation licenses, Astra can request a modification of the Part 450 license to add additional launch sites for Rocket v3.3, which is expected to save us the time and expense of applying for a new license for launches using Rocket v3.3.

If there is a mishap during a launch, the FAA will require us to open an investigation into the mishap and we will not be able to launch until the investigation is closed, or the FAA has made a favorable public safety determination.

The regulations, policies, and guidance issued by the FCC apply to the radio frequencies utilized during operation of our launch vehicles. When we communicate with our launch vehicles using any part of the electromagnetic spectrum, we are operating a space station to which FCC regulations apply. Operators of regulated space stations are required to hold and maintain compliance with proper licenses throughout the duration of any given mission.

The FCC recently enacted a new set of licensing guidelines for small satellites and related systems that may apply to future Astra launch vehicles or satellites manufactured by Astra. As a result, we may face a transition in license types from Special Temporary Authorization (“STA”) to the small satellite licensing guidelines. Additionally, the FCC is currently considering additional rules which could change the operational, technical and

 

47

financial requirements for commercial space operators subject to U.S. jurisdiction. If these, proposed rules become final, they could change system design and financial costs in order to comply with or secure new Astra spectrum licensure.

As a U.S. licensee, the regulations, policies, and guidance issued by the FCC apply to the operation of Astra’s future satellite constellation and satellite services. Radio frequency communications between Astra satellites, gateways and user terminals for operations within the U.S. market are regulated by the FCC, including both space stations (satellites) and earth stations (gateways and user terminals). Operators of regulated space stations and earth stations are required to hold and maintain compliance with proper licenses throughout the duration of operations. Additionally, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) defines international radio regulations, recommendations, and technical standards which all apply to Astra’s constellation and satellite services globally.

“dual-use”

The U.S. government agencies responsible for administering the ITAR and the EAR have significant discretion in the interpretation and enforcement of these regulations. The agencies also have significant discretion in approving, denying, or conditioning authorizations to engage in controlled activities. Such decisions are influenced by the U.S. government’s commitments to multilateral export control regimes, particularly the Missile Technology Control Regime concerning the spaceflight business.

Many different types of internal controls and measures are required to ensure compliance with such export control rules. In particular, we are required to maintain registration under the ITAR; determine the proper licensing jurisdiction and classification of products, software, and technology; and obtain licenses or other forms of U.S. government authorizations to engage in activities, including the performance by foreign persons, related to and who support our spaceflight business. Under the ITAR, we must receive permission from the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls to release controlled technology to foreign person employees and other foreign persons.

See “Risk Factors” above. We are subject to stringent U.S. export and import control laws and regulations” for more information about the risks associated with the requirements of ITAR and EAR.

We are subject to federal, state, local, and foreign laws, regulations and ordinances relating to the protection of the environment, including those relating to emissions to the air, discharges to surface and subsurface waters, safe drinking water, greenhouse gases and the management of hazardous substances, oils and waste materials. Federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment may require a current or previous owner or operator of real estate to investigate and remediate hazardous or toxic substances or petroleum product releases at or from the property which could result in operational disruptions. Under federal law, generators of waste materials, and current and former owners or operators of facilities, can be subject to liability for investigation and remediation costs at locations that have been identified as requiring response actions.

 

48

10-K,

10-Q,

8-K,

Our current facilities are adequate for our present operating needs. However, we are in the process of building out additional space on our Alameda campus to support the launch services offerings, as well as the build out of facilities for our future space services offerings.

We do not own any real estate.

Discussion of legal matters is incorporated by reference from Note 18, “Subsequent Events” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements herein, and should be considered an integral part of this “Legal Proceedings” section.

 

49

V-band

We entered into a business combination agreement with Holicity Inc. (“Holicity”) on February 2, 2021. On the Closing Date, the previously announced business combination was consummated. Upon the consummation of the business combination, Holicity Merger Sub Inc. (“Merger Sub”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Holicity, merged with and into Astra with Astra surviving the merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Holicity (the “Business Combination”). Astra became a wholly owned subsidiary of Holicity, which renamed to Astra Space, Inc. (“New Astra”), and Astra renamed to Astra Space Operations, Inc. upon the consummation of the Business Combination.

The Business Combination was accounted for as a reverse recapitalization. Astra was the predecessor and New Astra is the successor SEC registrant, meaning that Astra’s financial statements for previous periods will be presented in New Astra’s future periodic reports filed with the SEC. Holicity was treated as the acquired company for financial statement reporting purposes.

The most significant change in the post-combination Company’s reported financial position and results was a net increase in cash of $463.6 million. We paid $25.2 million in transaction costs relating to the Business Combination at the closing. We recorded a liability related to the Public and Private Placement Warrants of $56.8 million in the consolidated balance sheet on Closing Date.

As a consequence of the Business Combination, the Company trades under the ticker symbol “ASTR” on the Nasdaq. We hired additional personnel and implemented procedures and processes to address public company

 

50

regulatory requirements and customary practices. We also incurred, and will continue to incur, additional annual expenses as a public company for, among other things, directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, director fees and additional internal and external accounting and legal and administrative resources, including increased audit and legal fees.

five-day

An additional $10.0 million of cash (“Cash Earnout”) is expected to be paid to employees of Apollo that joined Astra following the acquisition, subject to certain performance-based milestones, as amended. The Cash Earnout is accounted for as compensation expense over the requisite service period in the post-acquisition period as the payment is subject to continued employment with the Company which is payable after the achievement of each performance-based milestone. The Company assessed the probability of success of each performance-based milestone and determined that the Company has achieved certain performance-based milestones and it is probable that certain remaining performance-based milestones will be met. The Company recognized $5.8 million in compensation cost which was included in research and development expense for the year ended December 31, 2021 and $3.9 million was accrued in accrued expenses and other current liabilities as of December 31, 2021.

In addition, on November 22, 2021, the Company’s compensation committee awarded 1,047,115 performance stock units (“PSUs”) to the employees of Apollo who joined Astra under the Company’s 2021 Omnibus Incentive Plan. The PSUs were negotiated as part of the acquisition of Apollo and are subject to certain performance-based and service-based vesting conditions. If the milestones are achieved, the PSUs would vest over four years with 25% of awards vesting on July 1, 2022 and the remaining 75% vesting quarterly beginning November 15, 2022, over the remaining 12 quarters only for the portion of PSUs that is eligible to become vested which will be determined based upon timely satisfaction of performance conditions. The number of PSUs vested will be determined by multiplying the total number of PSUs granted by the percentage of milestones achieved and by the percentage of PSUs that satisfy the time-based vesting condition on such time-vesting date.

re-assess

 

51

As of December 31, 2021, the Company assessed the probability of success for the performance conditions that are not subjective and determined that the Company has achieved these performance conditions within the requisite period. Therefore, the Company recognized $0.5 million compensation costs related to PSUs for the year ended December 31, 2021.

As part of Holicity’s initial public offering (“IPO”) in 2020, Holicity issued 9,999,976 warrants to third party investors, and each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase one share of the Company’s Class A common stock at an exercise price of $11.50 per share (the “Public Warrants”). Simultaneously with the closing of the IPO, Holicity completed the private sale of the 5,333,333 Private Placement Warrants. Each Private Placement Warrant allows the sponsor to purchase one share of the Company’s Class A common stock at $11.50 per share.

On November 26, 2021, the Company issued a notice of redemption to redeem all of its Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants (“Redeemable Warrants”) outstanding as of December 27, 2021. In connection with the redemption, the holders of 9,413,895 Public Warrants and 5,333,333 Private Placement Warrants elected to receive, in lieu of the $0.10 redemption price, an aggregate 3,775,709 shares of Class A common stock at 0.2560374 shares of Class A common stock per Redeemable Warrant. A total of 586,075 Public Warrants remained unexercised as of December 27, 2021 and the Company redeemed the Public Warrants for a redemption price of $0.10 per Redeemable Warrant. The Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants were remeasured to fair value as of the exercise or redemption date, resulting in a gain of $25.7 million for year ended December 31, 2021, classified within other income, net in the consolidated statements of operations.

Impact

(“COVID-19”)

COVID-19

COVID-19

COVID-19

We believe that our performance and future success depend on a number of factors that present significant opportunities for us but also pose risks and challenges, including competition from better known and well-capitalized companies, the risk of actual or perceived safety issues and their consequences for our reputation and the other factors discussed under “Risk Factors.” We believe the factors discussed below are key to our success.

We are on track to achieve a monthly launch capability by accelerating production of our launch vehicles by the end of 2022, with a goal of reaching an even more frequent launch capability in the future. When we refer to a

 

52

“commercial launch,” we mean a launch conducted under an FAA commercial launch license. With binding agreements for launches, our contracted revenue is significant, and we are in active discussions with numerous potential customers, including government agencies and private satellite companies, to add to our contracted revenue.

In December 2020, we successfully launched Rocket 3.2 to an altitude of 380 km, demonstrating orbital launch capability. We improved propellant depletion controls to address the findings from the December 2020 flight. In August 2021, we attempted a flight with launch vehicle LV0006, but the mission was aborted. During liftoff, fuel and liquid oxygen leaked from the propellant supply system attached to the launch vehicle. The leaked propellants mixed and ignited, which disabled one of the five first-stage engines. We analyzed the cause of the anomaly and implemented certain design changes to avoid having this issue in future. On November 20, 2021, we launched launch vehicle LV0007 into orbit at an inclination of 86.0 degrees, an altitude of 500 km and velocity of 7.61 km/s, making Astra one of the fastest privately-funded U.S. company to successfully demonstrated the orbital placement of a test payload. Astra achieved this goal in approximately five years from inception. We commenced paid commercial launch services in 2022 and on February 10, 2022, Astra launched launch vehicle LV0008. After a nominal first stage flight, the payload fairing did not fully deploy prior to the upper stage ignition due to an electrical issue which, together with a software issue, resulted in the upper stage not reaching orbit and the end of the mission. Through our investigation process, we identified and have since corrected the issues that caused the error in the payload fairing’s deployment and addressed the software issue. On March 15, 2022, we conducted an orbital launch for three customers of Spaceflight, Inc. and confirmed our first delivery of customer payloads into Earth orbit. To conduct our launches, we are required to receive commercial space transportation licenses from the FAA. Any delays in commencing our commercial launch operations, including due to delays or cost overruns in obtaining FAA licenses or other regulatory approvals for future versions of our launch vehicles or at future spaceports, could adversely impact our results and growth plans.

We aim to be a cost-efficient dedicated orbital launch system provider. We plan to increase the maximum payload capacity of our launch vehicle to meet the customer needs and demands through a process of iterative development and improvement. We have invested approximately $35.9 million in our manufacturing facility through December 31, 2021 and we expect the facility will be at full capacity by the end of 2024. Please see the section entitled “Risk Factors” for factors that could affect our ability to realize benefit from investment in our manufacturing facility. While we believe that our estimate is reliable, the development of our manufacturing facility may take longer than planned, including due to delays in obtaining federal and state regulatory approvals of our final construction plans or any changes that are required to be made to those plans. Any delays in our achieving full manufacturing capacity could adversely impact our results and growth plans.

in-house

in-house

turn-key

 

53

non-geostationary

V-band

We expect to make significant investments in our space services programs. Although we believe that our financial resources, including the proceeds of the Business Combination and the related private placement, will be sufficient to meet our capital needs for at least 23 months from December 31, 2021, our timeline and budgeted costs for these offerings are subject to substantial uncertainty, including due to compliance requirements of U.S. federal export control laws and applicable foreign and local regulations, the impact of political and economic conditions, and, particularly in the case of our anticipated Spaceport offering, the need to identify opportunities and negotiate long-term agreements with customers for these services, among other factors. Please see the section entitled “Risk Factors”.

We are an early-stage company and our historical results may not be indicative of our future results for reasons that may be difficult to anticipate. Accordingly, the drivers of our future financial results, as well as the components of such results, may not be comparable to our historical or future results of operations.

We have not generated any revenue as of December 31, 2021, as we were a developmental stage company until our first paid commercial launch, which occurred in February 2022. Following the commercial launch of our services, we expect to generate a significant portion of our revenues in launch services from delivering payloads into orbit. We also expect to generate revenues by delivering space products and space services to our customers in the future. Over time, we expect space services to grow more quickly and to represent a significant portion of our revenues after 2025.

Our research and development expenses consist primarily of internal and external expenses incurred in connection with our research activities and development programs. These expenses include, but are not limited to, development supplies, testing materials, personnel and personnel-related costs (including salaries, bonuses, benefits, and stock-based compensation expense), depreciation expense, overhead allocation (consisting of various support and facility costs) and consulting fees. Research and development costs are expensed as incurred.

We allocate research and development costs by function rather than by project, as a significant majority of our historical research and development spending was related to the initial development and testing of our underlying technology, including preparation for multiple test launches.

Our current primary research and development objectives focus on the development and finalization of our offerings. The successful development of these offerings involves many uncertainties, including:

 

 

 

 

 

54

 

 

 

 

A change in the outcome of any of these variables could delay the development of our launch and space systems, which in turn could impact the timing of commercialization of our offerings.

As we are developing and building our launch services, we have expensed all research and development costs associated with developing and building our launch services offering. We expect that our research and development expenses will increase in the short-term as we invest in improving and further reducing the costs of our launch system as well as developing and improving our space services offering.

Sales and marketing expenses consist of personnel and personnel-related expenses (including stock-based compensation) for our business development team as well as advertising and marketing expenses. We expect to increase our sales and marketing activities in order to grow our customer base and increase market share. We also expect that our sales and marketing expenses will increase over time as we continue to hire additional personnel to scale the business. We began incurring sales and marketing expenses in 2021.

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel and personnel-related costs (including salaries, bonuses, benefits, and stock-based compensation expense) for personnel in executive, finance, accounting, corporate development and other administrative functions. General and administrative expenses also include legal fees, professional fees paid for accounting, auditing, consulting, tax, and investor relations services, insurance costs, and facility costs not otherwise included in research and development expenses and costs associated with compliance with the rules and regulations of the SEC and the stock exchange.

Our income tax provision consists of an estimate for U.S. federal and state income taxes based on enacted rates, as adjusted for allowable credits, deductions, uncertain tax positions, changes in deferred tax assets and liabilities, and changes in the tax law. We maintain a valuation allowance against the full value of our U.S. and state net deferred tax assets because we believe the recoverability of the tax assets is not more likely than not.

Other income, net primarily consists of gain on change in fair value of Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants, fair value contingent consideration, mark to market derivate liability related to convertible notes and forgiveness of Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) Note and income from government research and development contracts.

Our consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP. Preparation of the financial statements requires our management to make a number of

 

55

judgments, estimates and assumptions relating to the reported amount of expenses, assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. We consider an accounting judgment, estimate or assumption to be critical when (1) the estimate or assumption is complex in nature or requires a high degree of judgment and (2) the use of different judgments, estimates and assumptions could have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. Our significant accounting policies are described in Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements herein. Our critical accounting estimates are described below.

pre-acquisition

We perform an annual impairment review of our goodwill during the fourth fiscal quarter of each year, and more frequently if we believe indicators of impairment exist. The process of evaluating the potential impairment of goodwill is highly subjective and requires significant judgment. To review for impairment, we first assess qualitative factors to determine whether events or circumstances lead to a determination that it is more likely than not that the fair value of our reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. Our qualitative assessment of the recoverability of goodwill, whether performed annually or based on specific events or circumstances, considers various macroeconomic, industry-specific and company-specific factors. Those factors include: (i) severe adverse industry or economic trends; (ii) significant company-specific actions; (iii) current, historical or projected deterioration of our financial performance; or (iv) a sustained decrease in our market capitalization below our net book value. After assessing the totality of events and circumstances, if we determine that it is not more likely than not that the fair value of our reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, no further assessment is performed. If we determine that it is more likely than not that the fair value of our reporting units is less than its carrying amount, we calculate the fair value of that reporting unit and compare the fair value to the reporting unit’s net book value. If the fair value of the reporting unit is greater than its net book value, there is no impairment. Otherwise, we record a goodwill impairment charge for the amount by which the carrying value of the reporting unit exceeds its fair value up to the amount of the goodwill. Determining the fair value of a reporting unit involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions. As of December 31, 2021, no impairment of goodwill is identified based on our qualitative assessment of the recoverability of goodwill.

We assess the impairment of long-lived assets including indefinite life intangible asset, definite life intangible asset and property, plant and equipment, whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of such assets may not be recoverable. Factors we consider important which could trigger an impairment review include (i) significant under-performance relative to historical or projected future operating results,

 

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(ii) significant changes in the manner of our use of the acquired assets or the strategy for our overall business, or (iii) significant negative industry or economic trends. The process of evaluating the potential impairment of long-lived assets under the accounting guidance is also highly subjective and requires significant judgment. In order to estimate the fair value of long-lived assets, we typically make various assumptions about the future prospects of our business and consider market factors to estimate future cash flows to be generated by the business, which requires significant judgment as it is based on assumptions about market demand for our services and products over a number of future years. Based on these assumptions and estimates, we determine whether we need to take an impairment charge to reduce the value of the long-lived asset stated on our consolidated balance sheets to reflect its estimated fair value. Assumptions and estimates about future values and remaining useful lives are complex and often subjective. They can be affected by a variety of factors including external factors, industry and economic trends, and internal factors, such as changes in our business strategy and our internal forecasts. Although we believe the assumptions and estimates we have made have been reasonable and appropriate, changes in assumptions and estimates could materially impact our reported financial results.

Astra adopted the requirements of the new revenue recognition standard, known as ASC 606, effective January 1, 2020, utilizing the modified retrospective method. Revenue for launch services and space products is recognized at a point in time when the Company has delivered the promised services or products to customers.

At contract inception, an assessment of the goods and services promised in the contracts with customers is expected to be performed and a performance obligation is identified for each distinct promise to transfer to the customer a good or service (or bundle of goods or services). To identify the performance obligations, the Company considers all the goods or services promised in the contract regardless of whether they are explicitly stated or are implied by customary business practices.

The transaction price will be defined as the amount of consideration in a contract to which an entity expects to be entitled in exchange for transferring promised goods or services to a customer, which is a fixed price stated in the contract. When a contract involves multiple launches or products, the Company accounts for each launch or product as a separate performance obligation, because the customer can benefit from each launch or product on its own or with other readily available resources and the launch or product is separately identifiable. The transaction price is allocated to each performance obligation on an estimated relative standalone selling price basis. The Company’s process to estimate standalone selling prices involves management’s judgment and considers multiple factors such as prices charged for similar goods and services and the Company’s ongoing pricing strategy and policies.

Changes in judgments with respect to these assumptions and estimates could impact the timing or amount of revenue recognition.

We use the fair value method of accounting for our stock-based awards granted to employees to measure the cost of employee services received in exchange for the stock-based awards. We recognize compensation expense for time-based restricted stock units (“RSUs”) over the requisite service period based on the fair value of RSUs on the date of grant. The fair value of RSUs is the closing market price of Astra common stock on the date of grant. We recognize compensation expense for time-based stock options and employee stock purchase plan, based on the estimated grant-date fair value determined using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model over the requisite service period. The Black-Scholes option-pricing model requires inputs that are subjective and require significant judgement and is impacted by the following assumptions:

 

 

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catch-up

We reverse previously recognized costs for unvested stock-based awards in the period that forfeitures occur.

We follow the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes under ASC 740, Income Taxes. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for the expected future tax consequences of temporary differences between consolidated financial statement carrying amounts and the tax basis of assets and liabilities and net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards. Valuation allowances are established when necessary to reduce deferred tax assets to the amount expected to be realized.

We determine whether it is more likely than not that a tax position will be sustained upon examination. If it is not more likely than not that a position will be sustained, no amount of benefit attributable to the position is recognized. The tax benefit to be recognized for any tax position that meets the more likely than not recognition threshold is calculated as the largest amount that is more than 50% likely of being realized upon resolution of the contingency. Changes in recognition or measurement are reflected in the period in which judgment occurs.

Our policy is to include interest and penalties related to the underpayment of income taxes as a component of the provision for income taxes. To date, there have been no interest or penalties recorded in relation to unrecognized tax benefits.

 

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