Astra lays off 25% of workforce, mostly in its rocket departments
Astra revealed yesterday that it has laid off 25% of its workforce, with most of those jobs coming from those working of developing its rocket, in order to focus the company on its rocket engine business, the only area it at present has a chance of earning revenue.
The reallocation and layoffs are expected to delay testing of the under-development Rocket 4 and Launch System 2.0, Astra said. The affected employees worked in the company’s launch, sales and administration and “shared services” departments. Workforce reductions are expected to save the company more than $4 million per quarter beginning in the fourth quarter of this year.
Astra, which is facing dwindling cash reserves, is no doubt looking for a way to further reduce operating expenses while also bolstering its spacecraft engine business, the only business unit that currently has a near-term chance of generating revenue. The spacecraft engine technology is sourced from Astra’s acquisition of propulsion developer Apollo Fusion, which closed the day Astra went public in July 2021.
Indeed, Astra said that it had closed 278 committed orders of the Astra Spacecraft Engine product through the end of March, which totals around $77 million in contracts once the engines are delivered. A “substantial majority” of these orders will be delivered through the end of 2024, the company said.
What these actions mean is that Astra is no longer a rocket company. It might return eventually, but for now there is little chance it will resume launches for years.
It is interesting that this action was revealed only one day after a class-action lawsuit was dismissed by investors against the company for claiming that it would soon be launching 300 times per year.
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Astra revealed yesterday that it has laid off 25% of its workforce, with most of those jobs coming from those working of developing its rocket, in order to focus the company on its rocket engine business, the only area it at present has a chance of earning revenue.
The reallocation and layoffs are expected to delay testing of the under-development Rocket 4 and Launch System 2.0, Astra said. The affected employees worked in the company’s launch, sales and administration and “shared services” departments. Workforce reductions are expected to save the company more than $4 million per quarter beginning in the fourth quarter of this year.
Astra, which is facing dwindling cash reserves, is no doubt looking for a way to further reduce operating expenses while also bolstering its spacecraft engine business, the only business unit that currently has a near-term chance of generating revenue. The spacecraft engine technology is sourced from Astra’s acquisition of propulsion developer Apollo Fusion, which closed the day Astra went public in July 2021.
Indeed, Astra said that it had closed 278 committed orders of the Astra Spacecraft Engine product through the end of March, which totals around $77 million in contracts once the engines are delivered. A “substantial majority” of these orders will be delivered through the end of 2024, the company said.
What these actions mean is that Astra is no longer a rocket company. It might return eventually, but for now there is little chance it will resume launches for years.
It is interesting that this action was revealed only one day after a class-action lawsuit was dismissed by investors against the company for claiming that it would soon be launching 300 times per year.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
This makes me so very sad. I hate it when folks lose jobs.
And now that Astra has invested so much money in the production line, machines and technology? See company tour in the video. Everything for the scrap?
Astra’s Revolutionary Manufacturing Process | Rocket 4 Factory Tour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSaa5ZNMGYA
Well, at least they gave us one of the most entertaining launches ever when they had a partial engine failure and the thing wandered like a drunken sailor off the pad and out the (luckily left open fence gate), lazily hovering until its T/W rose above one and it was able to accelerate up. I suspect the GNC engineers who worked on that flight software were quickly snapped up by healthier companies.
They have A conference call tomorrow to discuss these events.
https://investor.astra.com/news-releases/news-release-details/astra-host-conference-call-august-7-2023
This is a full week before the quarterly results call, on the 14.
The timing makes me wonder if they will pull the trigger on the planned reverse stock split.
The powerslide was cool
“Everything for the scrap?” No, that’s the magic of bankruptcy, useful items are put to more productive use. Note – I am not saying that Astra is bankrupt, but selling assets off is a way to get cash and the new owners get a deal on (slightly) used tools , equipment and slaves…I mean employees.