Astra’s stock takes wild ride after rocket launch
During a webcast of the launch, Astra’s director of product, Carolina Grossman, warned that the company wouldn’t know immediately if the satellites deployed safely, as the rocket wasn’t in a position to send ground readings in the minutes after it reached orbit.
Following the launch, 30 minutes of silence went by. Astra’s stock shed more than 10% of its value, and trading was briefly halted.
The ordeal highlights how volatile it can be to invest in a rocket company — especially when they choose to set off a rocket during trading hours.
Now, the company’s stock is consistently below the $4 per share mark, way off its high of more than $16 per share.
Astra is one of dozens of companies that plan to use relatively small, lightweight rockets to make frequent trips to space to drop off satellites — not to be confused with the far larger rockets launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, or the suborbital space tourism rocket developed by Jeff Bezos’ company, Blue Origin.
Astra, Rocket Lab and California-based Virgin Orbit are among the only startups that have now proven their rockets can get the job done.
That’s not to say Astra and the others can’t or won’t be successful. But the company is facing stiff competition.
When asked in a company Q&A posted online how Astra plans to stand out in such a crowded industry, Adam London, Astra’s founder and chief technology officer, said that “rockets are typically artisanal, crafted objects. You make one at a time, and they’re very complicated. But when you really get into it, they don’t need to be that complicated, particularly when you’re not flying people or critical national assets, and they don’t absolutely, positively have to work 100% of the time.”
In other words, Astra plans to mass produce rockets to make them cheaper, but it…
Read More: Astra’s stock takes wild ride after rocket launch