Planet Labs Inc. (“Planet”) has entered into a definitive merger agreement with dMY Technology Group, under which Planet will become a publicly-traded company. Upon closing, the combined company will retain the Planet name and be listed on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “PL.”

The transaction values Planet at a post-transaction equity value of approximately $2.8 billion.Planet has a proven track record of success, generating more than $100 million in revenue in its last fiscal year ended January 31, 2021, and currently serves more than 600 customers across 65 countries, for example:

• In agriculture, Planet’s data helps farmers increase crop yields and revenue, decrease costs such as fertilizer use, and adopt sustainable agriculture practices.
• Governmental organizations use Planet’s data to increase global security and transparency by monitoring threats, responding to emergencies, and enforcing local permitting.
• In forestry, Planet’s data is used to measure and stop deforestation and to monitor sustainability initiatives.
• In mapping, Planet’s imagery helps keep digital maps up to date as the world changes, whether through environmental effects or urban development.Planet delivers a unique data set: a daily scan of Earth’s entire landmass.

This data systematically and consistently documents change across the planet on a daily basis. Planet largely operates a subscription-based business model in which customers purchase proprietary data feeds. Planet views its one-to-many model as differentiated, as the data andanalytics can be sold multiple times to multiple customers, enabling high profit margins. Through this transaction, Planet will invest to accelerate its growth by further expanding into existing and new markets, as well as building additional software and machine-learning-enabled data products and solutions.

“At Planet our goal is to use space to help life on Earth. We have this huge new dataset — an image of the entire Earth landmass every day — which we serve up via a Bloomberg-like terminal for Earth data, making it simple to consume and expanding reach to potentially millions of users across dozens of verticals,” said Planet CEO and Co-founder, Will Marshall. “As the world shifts to a more sustainable 2economy and more companies and governments settheir sustainability and ESG goals, the first step in achieving these objectives is measurement. Planet’s daily, global data is foundational to making that transition. We’re excited to reach this important milestone of taking Planet public to significantly accelerate our mission, and to be doing so with dMY and other great investors.”

“We believe Planet is a new kind of data company, delivering mission-critical insights and solutions to some of the world’s most influential companies and governmental organizations,” said Niccolo de Masi, CEO of dMY IV. “The Company’s daily, global dataset is impressive and we believe serves as the foundation of a rapidly growing and scalable data-as-a-service subscription business, which we believe is poised for significant growth as data increasingly becomes the fuel that powers the global economy. When you combine their visionary leadership team, talented workforce, vast dataset and transformational technology, it’s an indication that Planet is on a path to become one of the most consequential companies in a generation.”

“Global sustainability requires data and analytics for global action,” said Marc Benioff. “Planet, and its key initiatives like Carbon Mapper, deliver radical transparency on our rapidly changing climate.”

The company stated that their data is critical to enabling decisions for many companies as they undergo the data-driven digital transformation. Within governments and across the broader economy, Planet’s daily information feeds are helping to define new methods to monitor resources and account for environmental assets, which is foundational for the ESG transition to enabling a sustainable economy. The company’s data is optimized for machine learning and delivered via a cloud-native platform, transforming the way companies and governments leverage satellite data and derived products,and delivering insights on a daily basis.

This powerful dataset is collected by a fleet of about 200 satellites — the largest EO satellite fleet ever — which Planet designs, builds, and operates in house. This constellation captures over 3 million images per day, covering over 300 million square kilometers and generating approximately 25 terabytes of data per day. With this data captured and archived every day, Planet has an extensive catalogue of high-resolution Earth images — more than 1,500 on average for every point on the Earth’s land mass — providing the ability to go back through time and analyze historical change as well as fuel powerful machine learning applications.P

This transaction values Planet at a post-transaction equity value of approximately$2.8 billion. Existing Planet stockholders will retain 77% ownership in the pro forma company and may receive up to an additional 27 million new Planet shares, depending on the performance of the share price during the five year period following the closing. Concurrently, with the consummation of the transaction, additional investors have committed to participate in the proposed business combination by purchasing shares of Class Acommon stock of dMY IVin a private placement (the “PIPE”). The $200 million PIPE investment is led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, with participation from Koch Strategic Platforms, Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures, and Google.

After paying transaction expenses and paydown of Planet’s existing debt, the balance of the $345 million in cash held in dMY IV’s trust account (assuming no redemptions), together with the approximately $200 million in PIPE proceeds, will be used to fund operations and support new and existing growth initiatives. The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by dMY IV’s Board of Directors and Planet’s Board of Directors, is expected to close later this year, subject to approval by dMY IV’s and Planet’s stockholders and other customary closing conditions.

Planet’s management team, led by CEO,Co-Founder and Chair, Will Marshall, and Chief Strategy Officer,Co-Founder and Director, Robbie Schingler, CFO/COO Ashley Johnson and President, Product and Business Strategy, Kevin Weil, will continue to lead the public company following the transaction. Additionally, dMY IV will nominate one director to serve on the board of directors of the public company following the transaction, with such director being reasonably acceptable to Planet.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Planet. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Needham & Company, LLC are acting as financial advisors to dMY IV. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as co-lead placement agents for dMY IV in connection with the PIPE transaction. Latham & Watkins LLP is serving as legal advisor to Planet. White & Case LLP is serving as legal advisor to dMY IV.`

Nettar Group, Inc. (“Satellogic” or the “Company”) and CF Acquisition Corp. V (Nasdaq: CFV) (“CFAC V”), a SPAC sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald, have entered into a definitive merger agreement that will result in Satellogic becoming a publicly traded company.

The transaction is expected to be completed early during the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. After closing, Satellogic will trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol SATL.

Using their proven technology at scale, Satellogic will be positioned to remap the Earth daily in high resolution and at an affordable price-point, fundamentally changing the way people access and use satellite data. The Company’s patented camera design captures 10 times more data from a single satellite than any other EO smallsat.

Satellogic currently has 17 commercial satellites on-orbit, including four that were launched on June 30. At 70 centimeters per pixel, the company stated that the high-resolution images of Earth produced by their satellites add up to more capacity than the next four competitors combined. Each satellite collects approximately 300,000 sq km of data per day and produces full-motion videos(FMV) o fas much aso two minutes in length.

Satellogic was founded to help solve some of the greatest challenges of our time: resource utilization and distribution. From tradeoffs between food, energy and water supplies, to monitoring the impacts of natural disasters, global health and humanitarian crises in the midst of a looming climate emergency; access to a continually refreshed source of global, high-quality data is critical to confronting some of the world’s most crucial issues.

Satellogic designs and manufactures every core component that goes into creating and manufacturing their satellites. This vertical integration provides a significant cost advantage, enabling the firm to produce and launch satellites for less than one-tenth the cost of their competitors, which buy components and use third-party assemblers.These capabilities also result in shorter R&D cycles as well as the ability to efficiently scale, all the while maintaining overall quality. By comparison, Satellogic is achieving more than 60 times better unit economics than the firm’s closest peers in the NewSpace sector, and more than 100 times better unit economics than legacy competitors.

Satellogic recently signed a multiple-launch agreement with SpaceX to deploy the full constellation of 300+ satellites, which is expected to completed by 2025. Once fully deployed, Satellogic will be the only company capable of remapping the world at resolutions as high as 30 centimeters and at the frequency required to address virtually all commercial applications.

On July 5, 2021, Satellogic entered into a definitive merger agreement with CFAC V. The transaction reflects an implied pro forma enterprise value of $850 million for Satellogic, representing a multiple of approximately 1.1x projected revenue of approximately $800 million by 2025.

The transaction is expected to result in cash on the balance sheet of up to approximately $274 million, after transaction expenses and debt repayment, through the contribution of up to $250 million of cash held in CFAC V’s trust account (assuming no redemptions by CFAC V’s public stockholders), and a concurrent PIPE offering of $100 million led by SoftBank’s SBLA Advisers Corp. and Cantor Fitzgerald, among other top-tier institutional investors.

The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of Satellogic and CFAC V, is subject to approval by CFAC V’s stockholders and other customary closing conditions.

Emiliano Kargieman, CEO & Co-Founder of Satellogic, said, “Since our founding, Satellogic has been committed to our mission of democratizing access to geospatial data to help solve the world’s most pressing problems. Today’s transaction is a significant milestone and brings us one step closer to fulfilling that goal. The merger will allow us to continue building out our constellation of satellites and maintain our position as a global leader in sub-meter imagery. Satellogic is poised to be the only company capable of remapping the world daily at the sub-meter resolution necessary to address commercial applications affordably. We are grateful to our talented and ambitious team who have developed best-in-class technology, a strong track record of delivering satellites to orbit, and the ability to scale at near-zero marginal cost.”

Howard W. Lutnick, Chairman & CEO of CFAC V and Cantor Fitzgerald said, “Satellogic is uniquely positioned to dominate the Earth Observation industry. Its technology, data, and analytics have vast use cases across countless industries. Imagine insurance companies being able to document disaster damage in real-time detail remotely. Or an app providing direct daily satellite data to a farmer about the best time to harvest crops. Or bringing live documentation of deforestation or rising sea levels to policymakers to drive the discussion around climate change. The possibilities are limitless. We are excited to partner with Emiliano and the rest of the Satellogic team as they endeavor to build and launch 300+ satellites in the constellation and unlock the significant opportunity for commercial applications to enable smarter global decision-making.”

On Thursday, July 1, OneWeb launched 36 additional broadband, internet satellites aboard a Soyuz launch vehicle from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia and RUAG Space built the satellite dispenser, which functions as an interface between the Soyuz rocket and satellites.

The dispenser will deposit the 36 satellites safely into space, bringing the constellation on-orbit from the 218 to 254 in number.

Airbus OneWeb Satellites—a joint venture between OneWeb and Airbus—is OneWeb’s industrial partner and leads the design and manufacturing of OneWeb’s fleet of satellites. The RUAG Space dispensers for OneWeb are built in Linköping, Sweden. Each dispenser has a 1.7 meter central cylinder structure and a height of 5.5 metres.

RUAG Space also manufactures the OneWeb satellite back-bone (structure) in Titusville, Florida. The structures are manufactured using the Automated Potting Process, a production method that uses a pick and place machine to rapidly position special inserts filled with adhesive into the satellite structure’s sandwich panels.

RUAG Space produces the multi-layer thermal insulation which protects the OneWeb satellites against the cold and heat in space from approximately minus 150°C to plus 150°C (-238 degrees F to 302 degrees F). The insulation consists of several layers of metal-evaporated polyimide film.

RUAG Space in Austria also built handle equipment and transport containers. The high-tech, custom satellite containers are used to transport the assembled OneWeb satellites from Florida to the launch sites. The containers are equipped with a specifically designed damping system and climate-control.

“Our dispenser is super-light and includes state-of-the-art technology to safely place the satellites in orbit,” said Holger Wentscher, Senior Vice President Product Group Launchers at RUAG Space.

NSR’s latest report, Global Satellite Manufacturing and Launch Markets, 11th Edition, sees post-pandemic rebound driven by constellations, innovative technologies and new services offerings.

During the next 10 years, satellite manufacturing and launch order volumes reach nearly 24,700. Upcoming deadlines for international regulatory filings, strong investments from public and private investors, and the associated capacity influx by Non-GEO HTS will drive significant orders and launches through 2030.

“With several ambitious and well-funded programs aiming to meet international deadlines under immense financial pressures, constellations will drive satellite manufacturing and launch volumes,” states NSR Principal Analyst and report lead author, Dallas Kasaboski. “While larger GEO satellites take on more complexity via software-defined and multi-mission payloads, other applications, such as In-Orbit Servicing (IoS), Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and IoT drive additional market growth.”

“The demand for new types of spacecraft and services in-orbit is increasing,” adds NSR Analyst and co-author Hussain Bokhari. “The drive for SSA continues, focusing on protection of assets via more satellites for Gov/Mil customers. Meanwhile, research and development satellites will help smaller players enter the market.”

Commercialization of crew and cargo flights also see a positive market outlook. Regardless of the forthcoming ISS decommissioning, Crew and Cargo missions dominate the Launch Market, generating the most revenue over the next decade, with private operators increasingly in the foreground.

As governments and private companies pick up pace, the Beyond Earth and Deep Space Exploration markets will be greenfield opportunities. Upcoming deadlines for international regulatory filings, strong investments from private investors, and the associated capacity influx by Non-GEO HTS will drive significant levels of orders and launches through 2030.

AAC Clyde Space has received a 135 kUSD order to continue operating the SeaHawk-1 satellite from the company’s Operations Center in Glasgow, Scotland, for a further 12 months.

The satellite, launched in 2018 is part of a partnership between the University of North Carolina Wilmington and NASA, observes the changing biology of the ocean surface and features a compact, multi-spectral camera (HawkEye) developed by Cloudland Instruments. The images captured by the camera are used to analyze the color of the ocean and thus determine the quality of the water.

The satellite is operated from AAC Clyde Space’s Glasgow Operations Center, with instrument data downloaded to NASA Wallops facility, through the satellite’s X-band downlink. The data is integrated into NASA’s SeaWiFS Data Analysis System (SeaDAS) and is distributed worldwide. Initially, Operations will focus on providing free access to all data that has been collected and processed from mid-April 2021 to the International Ocean Color Community. The satellite is expected to produce around 100 images per week. Data generated enables a greater understanding of the marine food chain, oceanic climate, fisheries and pollution phenomena, enabling to support the health and sustainability of our oceans.

SeaHawk-1, a 3U cubesat, is a follow-on mission from the highly successful SeaWiFS (Sea-Viewing Wide field-of-View Sensor) mission, launched in 1997. For more than 20 years, SeaHawk-1 has been able to replicate the performance of the SeaWiFS mission except it is approximately 100 times smaller and lighter and, therefore, more economical, ensuring long term viability of high-quality science missions.

Under agreement with the Moore Foundation, all Hawkeye imagery will be made available free of charge via the NASA Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center (OB.DAAC) on NASA’s Ocean Color Web at https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov which has been extended to handle HawkEye data. In addition, NASA’s free, comprehensive, software package for the processing, display and analysis of ocean color data known as SeaDAS (https://seadas.gsfc.nasa.gov/) has been updated to include the support for HawkEye.

“It has been quite an experience working with Clyde Space on the design, construction, launch, commissioning, and now operations of SeaHawk-1. As our partners at Clyde Space said when we started on this venture, this satellite is arguably one of the most sophisticated 3U Cubesats ever conceived. We have just commissioned a satellite the size of a shoebox that’s travelling at 7.5 km/s, at an altitude of about 600km with a better downlink rate than the broadband into my house providing scientific quality data on ocean ecology,” said John M. Morrison, UNCW Principal Investigator.

“AAC Clyde Space are delighted to continue to support the SeaHawk-1 mission. Academia, government agencies and industry are joining forces like never before to improve environmental surveillance and generate reliable data, filling in the gaps of our understanding for informed decision making. SeaHawk-1 is a prime example of this, Sustained Ocean Color Monitoring is vital to understanding the marine ecosystem and in turn climate change,” said AAC Clyde Space CEO, Luis Gomes.

The next Arianespace mission is planned from Vostochny Cosmodrome with Soyuz on July 1 to deliver 36 OneWeb satellites into orbit, bringing that company’s total fleet to 254 satellites in LEO.

This 58th Soyuz mission conducted by Arianespace and their Starsem affiliate will be the fifth launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome and represents OneWeb’s eighth launch overall. By operating ST33 flight, Arianespace will have placed into orbit to allow OneWeb to deliver connectivity services in Canada, U.K., Northern Europe, Alaska and the Arctic regions by the year’s end.

The mission will have a total duration of three hours and 51 minutes and will include nine separations of four satellites, which will raise themselves to their operational orbit.

This launch will mark the completion of OneWeb’s ‘Five to 50’ ambition to bring into orbit the satellites required to enable connectivity services to the 50th parallel. OneWeb’s launch campaign will continue thereafter as the firm works toward delivering global service next year.

OneWeb’s constellation will deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity services to a wide range of customer sectors that include aviation, maritime, backhaul services, as well as governments, emergency response services and more. Central to its purpose, OneWeb seeks to bring connectivity to every location where fiber cannot reach, and in doing so, bridge the digital divide.

Once deployed, the OneWeb constellation will enable user terminals that are capable of offering 3G, LTE, 5G and Wi-Fi coverage, providing high-speed access globally – by air, sea and land.

OneWeb Satellites, a joint venture between OneWeb and Airbus Defence and Space, is the constellation’s prime contractor. The satellites were built thanks to a satellite manufacturing process that can build as many as two satellites a day on a series production line that is dedicated to the assembly, integration and testing of the satellites.

Fleet Space Technologies will launch their sixth smallsat, Centauri 4 (C4), aboard SpaceX Falcon9 on Saturday morning , June 26, at 4:26 a.m., Adelaide, Australia, time, with the US launch occurring at Cape Canaveral. 

To be delivered into orbit at 450 km above the Earth, Centauri 4 is the size of a shoebox and has been integrated with digital beamforming technology, making this Fleet Space’s most advanced payload. This is a major achievement for the company to incorporate this tech in a smallsat payload, due to the small craft’s power and volume constraints, and this will allow for substantial increases in throughput of customer data, service a higher number of customer portals at once as well as increase data reliability and security by reducing the impact of interference. C4 will implement Fleet Space’s first 3D printed antenna system, completely designed in-house.

Fleet Space has released a video explaining the achievements of their beamforming team at this direct vlink…

“Space is no longer the sole domain of governments and multi-billion dollar satellites. Space is open for business, and we’re only just starting to tap into what is possible,” said Fleet Space CEO Flavia Tata Nardini. “With our digital beamforming technology, we are changing space and making it accessible. With a crowded radio spectrum containing all of the world’s wireless communications, bandwidth efficiency is everything. Our engineers have managed to fit this incredible technology in the vacuum of space on a tiny nanosat. This is where Fleet Space’s technology makes it world first. I have been working and launching nanosatellites for more than 10 years now and I have never been so excited by a technological breakthrough such as this latest generation of the payload. This and the new 3D printed antennas that my amazing team have built at Fleet Space. We can finally demonstrate how powerful nanosatellites can be in the comms world. We call this payload the Knight. Look at it, you can understand why!”

Additionally, there is a 2nd experimental payload which will have an even greater increase in data capacity — this new generation payload is a huge milestone in the company’s planned constellation of 140 smallsats.

Now with the ability to shape and steer multiple beams in their nanosatellites and, therefore, reduce interference, Fleet Space can perform more work, transfer more data and do it in flexible and secure ways never before possible at this scale. The firm’s smallsats are servicing IoT customers who will reap the rewards of collecting and organizing vast amounts of data from every remote corner of the Earth. Critical infrastructure customer use cases include tracking power outages, receiving alerts of unwanted encroachments along easements and bushfire risks, through to applications in defence, mining and logistics. 

Fleet Space already has five smallsats on-orbit in their LEO constellation. With significant growth in the company’s development of cutting-edge technologies, the company’s capabilities of their agnostic hybrid satellite, low-powered, wide area network (LPWAN) are being used for the development of remote, massive, IoT applications, on the Earth, the Moon and Mars, through the firm’s Seven Sisters Lunar Mission. 

Watch the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch at this direct link on June 26…

Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) will integrate their In-line Network Encryptor (INE) into the world’s first Link 16-capable LEO satellite, which the company is developing for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles XVI program.

Viasat’s INE will be the first crypto deployment on a Link 16-capable LEO satellite, and will provide communications security (COMSEC) and additional enhanced cybersecurity capabilities initially associated with mission data transfer, with future evolutions expected to simultaneously secure user data; telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) management; and inter-satellite communications—at multiple security levels.

Viasat’s INE, which was designed for a very low Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) constrained system, is expected to provide radiation-tolerant network encryption aligned with the LEO space environment and will be capable of supporting speeds exceeding 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) aggregate throughput, which makes it an outstanding encryptor to secure Link 16-to-LEO communications. The INE will also be able to secure the data flow between an unclassified spacecraft bus and the classified processing domain.

Over the past two decades, Viasat’s information assurance business has achieved a number of industry milestones. The Company’s PSIAM-based rugged, compact Type-1 cryptographic product portfolio already includes a ground-based satellite TT&C crypto (the KS-252)—which is currently deployed in the U.S. Air Force’s satellite communications ground station architectures. This crypto is the foundation for providing the same innovative, multi-functional, programmable value proposition to the space segment.

“In addition to building and testing the first-ever Link 16-capable LEO satellite prototype, Viasat is also focused on delivering the first high assurance, fully-programmable crypto deployed in space,” said Craig Miller, president, Government Systems, Viasat. “Our focus is on revolutionizing space-based cryptographic and cybersecurity solutions by moving away from embedded, fixed single-application ASICs and moving to ‘plug and play,’ fully-programmable, multi-functional and highly-efficient military-grade cryptos that can be rapidly deployed by supporting commercial off the shelf technology enhancements for small satellites.”

Learn more about Viasat’s network encryption devices at this direct link.

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) has announced Operation Arctic Lynx (OAL), a series of partnership-driven field exercises deploying Iridium® and Iridium Connected® technologies and involving more than 20 organizations, primarily focused above 60 degrees north latitude and stretching as far as 82 degrees north latitude.

Occurring between June 11 and June 26, 2021, OAL involves an international contingent of organizations including existing Iridium customers such as the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. federal agencies, Alaska state and local organizations, Canadian government organizations, scientific research organizations and multiple aerospace industry companies.

During OAL, Iridium and Iridium Connected weather resilient satellite communications technology will be deployed through a combination of on-base, Communications-On-The-Move (COTM), At-The-Halt (ATH) and remote environment applications. Technologies being featured include weather-resilient broadband (Iridium Certus®), Iridium Push-To-Talk (PTT), a variety of unattended sensors capable of tracking, environmental monitoring, remote control functions and managing data and image delivery, Beyond-Visual-Line-Of-Sight (BVLOS) capabilities enabling truly global real-time command and control for drones and autonomous vehicles (Iridium Global Line of Sight^SM), in-vehicle solutions and demonstration of cutting-edge capabilities, such as real-time, on-the-move, 1080 HD video over L-band. Iridium has a 20-plus year pedigree of providing reliable Arctic communications.

As part of the operation, multiple voice, data and video real-time communications threads will be exercised both at-the-halt and on-the-move, starting from Utqiagvik, Alaska. Utqiagvik, previously known as Barrow, is located at 71 degrees north latitude, approximately 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle and situated on the Arctic Ocean.

Among these communications threads will be a site located even farther north than Utqiagvik, at approximately 82 degrees north latitude – Canadian Forces Station Alert (CFS Alert), Nunavut, Canada that is the most northerly, permanently inhabited location in the world and one of a number of Arctic Weather Stations. The site has deployed Iridium Certus technology in the form of a Thales MissionLINK 700 terminal to ensure reliable communications.

Additional communications threads include but are not limited to the U.S. South Pole Station, at 90 degrees south latitude, Antarctica; McMurdo Station, Antarctica; Colorado Springs; Melbourne, Florida; Tyler, Texas; Chandler, Arizona; Leesburg, Virginia; Oslo and London.

“Iridium’s Arctic and Antarctic communications capabilities have long been a part of the fabric of government, NGO and civil enterprise activities in those regions and now with our upgraded constellation and new technologies developed, we have turbocharged our portfolio of solutions to address an increasing range of polar communication requirements,” said Scott Scheimreif, executive vice president, Government Programs, Iridium. “With more than 20 participating organizations, Operation Arctic Lynx will exercise the ability to provide real-time interoperability, communications-on-the-move, command-and-control and develop and maintain a common operational picture in austere polar regions. We’re proud to have so many esteemed organizations participating.”

Astra has announced the company’s planned acquisition of Apollo Fusion in a transaction valued up to $145 million.

Apollo Fusion manufactures a leading electric propulsion engine. This acquisition allows Astra to provide launch and space services beyond LEO to MEO, GEO and lunar orbits.

Under the agreement, Astra is acquiring Apollo Fusion for a purchase price of $50 million: $30 million in stock and $20 million in cash. Additionally, there is potential for earn-outs of up to $95 million: $10 million in employee incentive stock, $10 million in cash for reaching technical milestones, and $75 million ($60 million in stock, $15 million in cash) for reaching revenue milestones. PJT Partners is acting as financial advisor to Astra in connection with this series of transactions.

“In addition to increasing Astra’s total addressable market for launch services, the acquisition of Apollo Fusion accelerates Astra’s ability to efficiently deliver and operate spacecraft beyond low Earth orbit,” said Astra Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Chris Kemp.

“Scale is what makes innovation matter,” said Reid Hoffman, partner at Greylock and lead investor in Apollo Fusion. “I’m excited that Apollo Fusion will be a key enabler of Astra’s hyperscale space platform.”

“Propulsion systems open new destinations,” said Apollo Fusion Founder and CEO, Mike Cassidy. “Our team is excited to combine the flexibility of in-space propulsion with the world’s most responsive launch provider.”

In addition to Cassidy, the acquisition brings a team with experience from companies such as Google, Tesla, and SpaceX, with individuals who have developed, designed and manufactured hardware flying on more than 2,000 satellites on-orbit today. This transaction will close after Astra’s business combination with Holicity (NASDAQ: HOL) is completed and is expected to be accretive to revenue starting this year.

Earlier this year, Astra and the Holicity Inc. (NASDAQ: HOL) SPAC announced a definitive business combination agreement that will result in Astra becoming a publicly traded company. The transaction reflects an implied pro-forma enterprise value for Astra of approximately $2.1 billion. Upon closing, the transaction is expected to provide up to $500 million in cash proceeds, including up to $300 million of cash held in the trust account of Holicity and an upsized $200 million PIPE led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.

“This transaction takes us a step closer to our mission of improving life on Earth from space by fully funding our plan to provide daily access to low Earth orbit from anywhere on the planet,” said Chris Kemp, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Astra. ‍

“I have long believed space provides an unmatched opportunity to benefit and enrich society,” said Craig McCaw, Chairman and CEO of Holicity. “Astra’s space platform will further improve our communications, help us protect our planet, and unleash entrepreneurs to launch a new generation of services to enhance our lives.”

With more than 50 launches in manifest across more than 10 private and public customers, including NASA and DoD, Astra has booked over $150 million of contracted launch revenue. Astra will begin delivering customer payloads this summer and start monthly launches by the end of this year. Upon the closing of the transaction, the combined company will be named Astra and will be listed on NASDAQ under the symbol “ASTR.”