Astra has laid off 25% of its workforce for the reason that starting of the quarter and is reallocating not less than 50 engineers and manufacturing workers away from its launch enterprise to concentrate on spacecraft manufacturing, the corporate mentioned Friday.
The reallocation and layoffs are anticipated to delay testing of the under-development Rocket 4 and Launch System 2.0, Astra mentioned. The affected staff labored within the firm’s launch, gross sales and administration and “shared providers” departments. Workforce reductions are anticipated to avoid wasting the corporate greater than $4 million per quarter starting within the fourth quarter of this yr.
Astra, which is going through dwindling money reserves, is little question searching for a approach to additional scale back working bills whereas additionally bolstering its spacecraft engine enterprise, the one enterprise unit that presently has a near-term probability of producing income. The spacecraft engine know-how is sourced from Astra’s acquisition of propulsion developer Apollo Fusion, which closed the day Astra went public in July 2021.
Certainly, Astra mentioned that it had closed 278 dedicated orders of the Astra Spacecraft Engine product by means of the tip of March, which totals round $77 million in contracts as soon as the engines are delivered. A “substantial majority” of those orders will likely be delivered by means of the tip of 2024, the corporate mentioned.
“We’re intensely targeted on delivering on our commitments to our clients, which incorporates making certain we now have adequate sources and an satisfactory monetary runway to execute on our near-term alternatives,” Chris Kemp, CEO and founder, mentioned in a press release.
Astra additionally mentioned that it had engaged funding financial institution PJT Companions as a monetary advisor because it appears to be like for extra capital to proceed operations. That features “potential strategic investments within the Astra Spacecraft Engine enterprise to strengthen Astra’s stability sheet,” the corporate mentioned. Individually, Astra mentioned it had raised $10.8 million in a debt sale to funding group Excessive Path Capital.
In accordance with preliminary second-quarter monetary outcomes, Astra is predicted to have revenues between $0.5-$1 million, whereas having simply $26-$26.5 million in money readily available.
This isn’t the primary time main layoffs have hit the house firm. Final November, Astra introduced it had let go of 16% of its staff, additionally to concentrate on launch and spacecraft engines.