Astra founders propose purchasing outstanding stock to take space company private

Astra founders Chris Kemp and Adam London have proposed taking the company private, with the two saying they would acquire all the outstanding stock themselves, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday.

Kemp, who is chairman and CEO, and London, chief technology officer, offered to purchase the outstanding stock at $1.50 a share. That is a 103% premium to the closing trading price of $0.74 per share. The founder pair delivered their proposal to Astra’s board of directors.

From this point, the board will review and consider the proposal and “pursue the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of all of the Company’s unaffiliated stockholders.” It is unclear how long the board has to consider the plan, but the company is on the books to pay back a lifeline loan that will come due on November 17, so any decision will almost certainly be made before that date.

Astra went public via a merger with a blank-check company, or SPAC, arguably at the height of space industry hype. When the company announced that it would enter public markets in February 2021, the deal was valued at $2.6 billion.

At the time, the company had an ambitious plan of developing ultra-cheap, high-volume rockets that could be launched virtually anywhere. But after a series of launch failures, as well as a developing launch market that made small satellite launch seem like an increasingly unsustainable bet, the company pivoted to a larger version of their launch vehicle. Simultaneously, the company also decided to acquire spacecraft propulsion startup Apollo Fusion, which offered the only meaningful source of revenue for the company -- but that business unit has been beset by its own internal struggles.

As the company has struggled to find its bearings, its been rapidly running out of cash and searching for more capital. At the very least, this plan would keep the company intact and give Kemp and London more time to find additional financing.