Space Race Heating Up: Analyst Recaps Latest Developments From SpaceX, Rocket Lab & Others

On Oct. 29, Terran Orbital announced plans to go public via a SPAC merger with $Tailwind Two Acquisition Corp(TWNT.US)$ . The deal values Terran at roughly $1.6 billion. The company plans to construct a manufacturing facility in Florida capable of producing more than 1,000 spacecraft per year.

SpaceX successfully returned its Crew-2 mission on Nov. 8 and launched its Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station on Nov. 11. On Nov. 26, SpaceX and $Tesla(TSLA.US)$ CEO Elon Musk said a production crisis with its Raptor rocket engines is “mush worse than it seemed a few weeks ago” and warned employees that SpaceX faces a “genuine risk of bankruptcy” if the company can’t complete at least one Starship flight every two weeks in 2022.

On Nov. 12, German laser communications company $Mynaric(MYNA.US)$ completed its IPO. Mynaric has an in-space test of its satellite optical communication terminals scheduled for the second quarter of 2022.

On Nov. 18, $Rocket Lab(RKLB.US)$ completed its 22nd mission and has now deployed 107 satellites. The company successfully recovered its first stage boosters for the third time.

On Nov. 19, $Telesat(TSAT.US)$ began trading on the Nasdaq, essentially taking the place of Loral Space & Communications. Loral owned 64% of Telesat. Telesat is looking to construct Lightspeed, a broadband constellation of 298 satellites that will cost an estimated $5 billion and provide high-speed commercial internet access.

On Nov. 20, $Astra Space(ASTR.US)$ completed its first orbital launch with its Rocket 3.3 model LV0007. Astra shares are up 14% in the past three months after the company went public back in July via a SPAC merger.

On Nov. 23, Blue Origin announced former NFL football player Michael Strahan and U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard’s daughter Laura Shepard Churchley will fly on its next New Shepard mission, NS-19, which is scheduled for Dec. 9.

On Nov. 24, $Virgin Galactic(SPCE.US)$ announced Keisha Schahaff of Antigua as the winner of a charity contest to fly in a future SpaceShipTwo suborbital flight. The event raised $1.7 million for Space for Humanity’s Citizen Astronaut Program.