Astra Space Stock Falls Over 23%, Company Fails to Deliver NASA’s Payload to Orbit

UTC by Steve Muchoki · 3 min read
Astra Space Stock Falls Over 23%, Company Fails to Deliver NASA’s Payload to Orbit
Photo: Astra

Astra Space announced that it was not able to deliver NASA’s payload to orbit due to technical failures.

Astra Space Inc (NASDAQ: ASTR) stock closed June 13 trading at $1.54, down 23.76 percent from the day’s opening price. ASTR stock has regained approximately 2.60 percent of the loss during the extended trading period. The sharp decline during the day has been attributed to the TROPICS-1 mission failure.

Notably, Astra Space announced that it was not able to deliver NASA’s payload to orbit due to technical failures.

“We had a nominal first stage flight. The upper stage shut down early and we did not deliver the payloads to orbit. We have shared our regrets with @NASA and the payload team. More information will be provided after we complete a full data review,” Astra noted via its Twitter account.

The embarrassment raised dissatisfaction with the company’s investors, thereby leading to a sell-off.

Astra Space and the Market Outlook

Astra Space clearly understands what is at stake with the latest mission failure. Furthermore, the space industry in the United States has been privatized. Thereby raising the level of competition. Remember there are companies like SpaceX by Elon Musk and BlueOrigin by Jeff Bezos among others.

Consequently, you can expect the company to defend its connection with NASA at full cost. Perhaps even a full mission repeat at the company’s expense.

Notably, Astra Space went public last year after completing a SPAC merger. Currently, the company is valued at approximately $533.59 million with 208.61 million shares outstanding, according to market data provided by MarketWatch.

Currently, Astra Space investors are feeling a lot of pressure to deliver on a bear market. Moreover, the ASTR stock market has declined approximately 85.96%, 77%, 56%, and 40% in the past year, YTD, three months, and one month respectively through Monday. A similar situation with the crypto market has seen the total crypto market cap drop from $3T to below $1 trillion.

A crazy Monday indeed for the stock and crypto market.

At the beginning of May, the company announced its financial results for the first quarter, which ended on March 31, 2022. Reportedly, the company deployed 22 satellites on March 15, 2022. Thereby representing its first successful deployment of satellites into Earth orbit.

Notably, Astra Space recorded a Net Loss of $85.7 million.

Nonetheless, the company has significantly invested in Space technology, hereby giving investors hope for future growth prospects.

“We continue to make targeted investments to enhance our launch capabilities and product roadmap while managing our cash position. I was impressed with our ability to quickly deploy resources to conclude the expansion of our rocket factory. We look forward to unveiling the progress we’ve made during Spacetech day next week,” stated CFO Kelyn Brannon.

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