Maritime Launch Services, a Canadian startup with plans for commercial rocket launches, is said in discussions to go public through a deal with Ceres Acquisition Corp (OTCQX:CERAF).
Ceres is in talks to raise funding through a PIPE deal that would give the combined company a value of about $530M, according to a Bloomberg report.
News of the potential transaction comes a day after Astra Space Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTR), another rocket launch company that went public through a SPAC deal last year, plunged 26% on Thursday after its rocket malfunctioned and its mission failed.
Maritime Launch is a Canadian-owned commercial aerospace company based in Nova Scotia. Maritime Launch is developing Spaceport Nova Scotia, which will be the first commercial orbital launch complex in Canada, according to a press release.
Maritime would join several other space/logistics companies that used the SPAC structure to go public in the last year including Virgin Orbit (NASDAQ:VORB), Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB), Momentus (NASDAQ:MNTS), Spire Global (NYSE:SPIR) and Redwire (NYSE:RDW). Space logistics company D-Orbit announced last month it planned to go public in a $1.3B SPAC deal with Breeze Holdings (NASDAQ:BREZ).
The deal for Ceres Acquisition, which is backed by A-list music manager Scott “Scooter” Braun, comes after a deal the SPAC had to take cannabis retailer Parallel public was mutually terminated last year.
Earlier, Astra Space extends loss as BofA downgrade, securities violation allegations follow failed launch attempt.