Astra space
Astra is an American launch vehicle company based in Alameda, California. Astra was incorporated in October 2016 by Chris Kemp and Adam London.[2][3] Formerly known in media as “Stealth Space Company”, the company formally came out as Astra Space, Inc. in a Bloomberg L.P. article by Ashlee Vance.[4] Investors include BlackRock, Advance, ACME, Airbus Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner and more.[5]
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab is a public American aerospace manufacturer and small satellite launch service provider with a wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary.[4][5][6][7] It developed a sub-orbital sounding rocket named Ātea and currently operates a lightweight orbital rocket known as Electron, which provides dedicated launches for small satellites and CubeSats. It is developing a new medium-lift launch vehicle named Neutron.[8] The company was founded in New Zealand in 2006 by engineer Peter Beck[9] and established headquarters in California in the United States in 2013.[1][10] On August 25th 2021 Rocket Lab publicly listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange through a SPAC merger with Vector Acquisition Corporation.[11]
The Electron test program began in May 2017,[12][13] with commercial flights announced by the company to occur at a price listed in early 2018 as US$5.7 million.[14] Launching from Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand, the rocket’s test flights took place on 25 May 2017 and 21 January 2018,[15][16] while its first commercial flight took place on 11 November 2018.[17] On 16 December 2018, Rocket Lab launched their first mission for NASA‘s ELaNa program. The company plans to make its first Electron launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia in 2021.[18]
Virgin Orbit
Virgin Orbit is a company within the Virgin Group which provides launch services for small satellites. On January 17, 2021, their LauncherOne successfully reached orbit, and successfully deployed 10 cubesats.[2]
The company was formed in 2017 to develop the air-launched LauncherOne rocket, launched from Cosmic Girl; this tandem had previously been a project of Virgin Galactic.[3] Based in Long Beach, California, Virgin Orbit has more than 300 employees led by president Dan Hart, a former vice president of government satellite systems at Boeing.[4][5]
Virgin Orbit focuses on small satellite launch, which was one of three capabilities being focused on by Virgin Galactic. These capabilities are: human spaceflight operations, small satellite launch, and advanced aerospace design, manufacturing, and test.[6]
On 30 December 2021 Virgin Orbit became a publicly traded company (symbol VORB) at the NASDAQ stock exchange.[7] Virgin Orbit underwent a SPAC merger with NextGen Acquisition Corp. II to become public; from its SPAC merger, Virgin Orbit raised $228 million or less than half than the $483 million it expected to raise. In August 2021 when the SPAC merger was announced, Virgin Orbit estimated it needed $420 million in cash, starting in the second half of 2021, to reach positive cash flow in 2024. Virgin Orbit held an “opening bell” ceremony at Nasdaq January 7 2022 to celebrate going public.[8]
A few months before going public, Virgin Orbit was owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, which had invested about $1 billion into Virgin Orbit up to August 2021. At the SPAC merger Virgin Orbit was valued at $3.7 billion in equity.[9]
When the SPAC merger was announced in August 2021, Virgin Orbit aimed to be profitable on an EBITDA-basis by 2024. The company said it had about $300 million in active contracts, and expected its rocket launch business to grow to about 18 launches in 2023. The company expected to have about $15 million in revenue in 2021, with an EBITDA loss of $156 million; however, it aimed at further revenue growth, reaching $2.1 billion in revenue by 2026.[9]
Spacex
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (doing business as SpaceX) is an American aerospace manufacturer, space transportation services and communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. SpaceX manufactures the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, several rocket engines, Cargo Dragon, crew spacecraft and Starlink communications satellites.
SpaceX’s achievements include the first privately funded liquid-propellant rocket to reach orbit around Earth, the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft, the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station, the first vertical take-off and vertical propulsive landing for an orbital rocket, the first reuse of an orbital rocket, and the first private company to send astronauts to orbit and to the International Space Station. SpaceX has flown the Falcon 9 series of rockets over one hundred times.
SpaceX is developing a satellite internet constellation named Starlink to provide commercial internet service. In January 2020, the Starlink constellation became the largest satellite constellation ever launched. The company is also developing Starship, a privately funded, fully reusable, super heavy-lift launch system for interplanetary spaceflight. Starship is intended to become SpaceX’s primary orbital vehicle once operational, supplanting the existing Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon fleet. Starship will have the highest payload capacity of any orbital rocket ever on its debut, scheduled for the early 2020s.