(Article pretext: EBITDA - Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, GAAP - Generally accepted accounting principles.)
Astra recently held its second quarter of 2023 earnings call on the 14th of August 2023. This call covered the company's profits, losses, and expenditures for the second quarter of 2023, April, May, and June 2023.
Q2 2023 financial and business highlights
Astra reported a GAAP gross profit of $0.3 million for the three months of Q2. It also reported a GAAP net loss of $14.0 million, an adjusted net loss of $33.7 million, adjusted EBITDA loss of $33.1 million. Astra's capital expenditures during Q2 totaled $3.2 million. However, the company's cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $26.3 million for Q2.
Astra did announce four shipments of 'Astra Spacecraft Engines' from its Sunnyvale spacecraft engine manufacturing facility and the completion of approximately 77% of non-delivery customer milestones related to 'Astra Spacecraft Engines'. The company also completed the Service Readiness Review for the United States Space Force STP-29B mission, which will launch 'experimental military payloads'.
Q3 2023 expectations and outlook
Astra is currently expecting to deliver eight to twelve 'Astra Spacecraft Engines' from its manufacturing facility. The company is also expecting its EBITDA loss to be between $25.0 million and $29.0 million, its capital expenditures to be between $1.0 million and $2.0 million, and its Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities to be between $15.0 million and $20.0 million for Q3 2023. Astra's CEO, Chairman, and Founder, Chris Kemp said the following about the current state of the company;
"We remain intensely focused on near-term deliveries of Astra Spacecraft Engines to our customers and have made difficult but necessary decisions to enable these efforts. I believe our existing organization can support a sustainable business going forward,"
Rocket 4
During the earnings call the company stated they had completed the production line for Rocket 4. The company also said that Rocket 4 test flights and customer missions had been pushed back into 2024.
Rocket 4 is a currently under-development expendable small lift launch vehicle aiming to lift 550 kilograms into low Earth orbit or 350 kilograms into sun-synchronous orbit. Astra claims it will be focused on capability and reliability unlike Rocket 3.
Who is Astra?
Astra is an American rocket company based in Alameda, California. The company was founded in October of 2016 and successfully made it to orbit in November of 2021, making it the fasted a company has gone from founding to orbit. Astra has so far had two outright successful flights of its nine launches.