As Astra Space continues to search for a lifeline to avoid bankruptcy, the company is reportedly weighing up selling a 51% stake in its in-space propulsion business or selling other parts of the business, like equipment, Bloomberg reported last night.
Astra would seek to value that business at more than $100 million, should it sell the majority stake. The company is also weighing up selling parts of its rocket factory, equipment or parts of the propulsion business to bring in much-needed cash, sources told Bloomberg.
The news isn’t a surprise: When people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that Astra was splitting off its spacecraft propulsion business into a subsidiary, that person said part of the motivation was to open up new financing options for the company.
The Alameda, California-based company has been trying to stave off bankruptcy for months. At the end of the second quarter of this year, Astra reported having just $26.3 million in cash and cash equivalents on hand. The company’s market cap now stands at around $24 million — just a fraction of its $2.1 billion valuation when it announced the deal to go public with a blank-check firm over two years ago.
Astra acquired the in-space propulsion business when it bought Apollo Fusion in the summer of 2021. The company saw the purchase as a way to expand into space services and integrate these offerings with its under-development rocket — which Astra was positioning as its bread-and-butter business. As a TechCrunch investigation revealed, that acquisition was beset by dysfunction almost from the very start. Today, almost none of the original Apollo Fusion team still work at Astra.