On this page of StockholderLetter.com we present the latest annual shareholder letter from Astra Space, Inc. — ticker symbol ASTR. Reading current and past ASTR letters to shareholders can bring important insights into the investment thesis.
ASTR Shareholder/Stockholder Letter Transcript:
2022 ANNUAL REPORT 2022 ASTRA ANNUAL REPORT Dear shareholders, As we embark on our second full year as a public company at Astra, we remain steadfastly committed to our mission of improving life on Earth from space. Our vision is centered around the belief that our success will lead to a healthier, more connected, and sustainable planet. Astra aspires to become a business of great consequence, and we are grateful for your trust and support as we pursue our ambitious goals. We believe that space has the potential to radically transform our world for the better. While we commend efforts to expand humanity s reach into the solar system, we have chosen to keep Astra s focus on Earth, dedicating our resources to solving pressing challenges and unlocking new opportunities right here at home. Our emphasis on long-term value creation and a development philosophy that is different from many of our peers sets us apart in the rapidly evolving spacetech industry. In this annual letter, we aim to share our approach with you, our shareholders, to ensure that our mission, values, strategy, and principles are aligned with your expectations. Team members with Rocket 4 at Astra s Skyhawk factory in Alameda, California As a publicly traded company, we understand that our primary goal is to create lasting value for our shareholders, and we are committed to transparent communication about our progress and challenges. We appreciate the trust and confidence you have placed in us as we navigate these challenges and boldly pursue opportunities to serve our customers, our country, and our vision for a healthier and more connected planet in the rapidly evolving spacetech industry. Astra entered 2022 executing on a strategy that we outlined to you as we became a public company and articulated in last year s shareholder letter. The three pillars of this strategy were to develop frequent and affordable space access through scaled launch services, enable more capable space systems by developing and producing critical core space products at scale, and ultimately become the leading provider of space services. This strategy required significant long-term investments in our rocket and space product production lines throughout 2022. We knew that to achieve our ambitious goals, we needed to invest heavily in the people, equipment, and infrastructure necessary to ensure the quality and reliability of our products and services. Despite facing numerous challenges Top: View from the upper stage of LV0009 / Spaceflight-1 as Astra successfully deploys 22 satellites into Earth orbit; Bottom: LV0009 / Spaceflight-1 launch (Photo: Brady Kenniston) 2022 ASTRA ANNUAL REPORT in 2022, we persevered and made the critical investments in the buildout of our new Rocket Production Line and Spacecraft Engine Production Line, and the supporting precision machine center, quality inspection lab, and new simulation and test capabilities. We understand deeply that the performance of our Launch System 1 did not meet the expectations of our customers and our shareholders and fell short of the ambitious goals we set forth for ourselves. Despite these challenges, Astra is today one of only four privately funded US companies to have conducted orbital launches and successfully delivered satellites into Earth orbit. Our launch services program is focused on delivering a reliable and scalable launch capability, and our goal is to lead the market in the lowest cost launch by investing in mass-produced rockets and automating key manufacturing and launch operations processes. The data and experience gathered from our missions in 2022 support our focus on reliability and scale. We also increased the design payload capability of Launch System 2 so that it would be able to launch an even larger fraction of the satellites projected to be put into service over the next decade. Astra s mission of improving life on Earth from space has never been more relevant than it is today. We firmly believe that frequent, reliable, dedicated launches and scaled production of space products are the keys to accelerating the growth of the space economy. As we look back on our achievements, we are encouraged by our progress and remain committed to our mission. Some of the key accomplishments from the past year include: 1. Astra successfully deployed 22 satellites into Earth orbit in March of 2022 for three different customers, following becoming the fastest privately funded US company to place a satellite into orbit in November 2021, just five years after our founding in 2016. 2. Astra achieved a Rocket 3 production rate of approximately one rocket per month from January to July of 2022, conducted two Rocket 3 launches within 33 days, and became the first company to launch under the Part 450 FAA license framework. 3. Astra secured 278 orders for new Astra Spacecraft Engines , with contracts from customers like Airbus OneWeb Satellites, Maxar Technologies, Astroscale, and LeoStella. These contracts represent approximately $77 million in contracted revenue, with the majority of deliveries expected in 2023 and 2024. In addition to these achievements, we made significant strides in scaling the production of Astra Spacecraft Engines . We built out a new dedicated production facility in Silicon Valley that is designed to eventually support the production of up to 500 units per year. Our production ramp is slated to begin in Q2 of 2023. Despite these successes, we faced our share of challenges during 2022. We launched but did not successfully deliver NASA satellites to orbit. In response to this setback, we halted the production and launch of our Rocket 3 product line and focused on accelerating the introduction of a more reliable and Control room at Astra s engine testing facility4/28/2023 Letter Continued (Full PDF)