Three space companies at risk of running out of cash

The space sector is at the end of a boom and bust cycle. While many companies battened down the hatches to survive, some publicly traded names are exhausted.

A flurry of about a dozen space companies went public in recent years. Although each of them has had fairly dismal stock performance since their debut, most are still chugging along and looking to build momentum in the year ahead, with some approaching coveted profitability milestones.

But a trio of names look likely to follow the path of Virgin Orbit, which failed last year. Here's who is most at risk of delisting, acquisition or even bankruptcy.

Space tug operator Momentus has already warned shareholders that it is running out of money, and earlier this month the company abandoned plans for its next mission.

Once valued at more than a billion dollars, Moment has been through a tumultuous couple of years. Despite a 1-for-50 stock split last year, its shares currently trade near 80 cents, putting the company at a depressed valuation of $7 million.

The next few weeks will likely be crucial for Momentus to find a new major sponsor or buyer, or else it will face bankruptcy.

Astra has been raising fragmented funding rounds from a handful of investors over the past few months as the company has been nearly out of cash since October.

Its rocket launch business has been on pause since June 2022 and its acquired spacecraft business is not generating significant revenue growth. And, although the company's founders floated a privatization plan in November, Astra's board of directors has not received any word on the proposal.

Once valued at more than $2.5 billion, Astra's valuation has been below $50 million for months.

Short of completing that privatization deal, it's unclear how the company could emerge from its desperate cash situation.

Sidus Space is a little-known space company that followed the traditional IPO route in late 2021 and began trading on the Nasdaq at a valuation close to $200 million. Sidus aims to build its own satellite constellation as a test or data platform for a variety of customers.

But it has seen minimal revenue growth and widening annual net losses. While its inaugural satellite was supposed to launch in late 2022, the company has yet to put the spacecraft into orbit and, most recently, is targeting a March launch.

Sidus has raised small amounts of financing through public stock offerings of $5 million or less since its initial public offering. But it had less than $2 million in cash at the end of September, trading at a valuation close to $9 million according to FactSet.

Last month, Sidus performed a 1-for-100 reverse stock split to regain compliance with Nasdaq listing rules.

Momentus, Astra and Sidus did not respond to CNBC's requests for comment.

A fourth space company in a potentially precarious situation is the satellite imaging company. Satellogic. Its most recent financial update only dates back to the end of June. At the time, Satellogic revealed that it had substantial doubts about surviving until September 2024. The company's shares are currently trading near $1.50, with a valuation of $21 million.

Despite some likely turbulence ahead, the space sector as a whole is not necessarily struggling and continues to attract interest from private markets. Overall, investment in the space sector recovered in 2023, with companies providing $12.5 billion in investments last year.

And although industry analysts predicted the consequences of the spate of public debuts a couple of years ago, they have not yet been as severe as predicted. Many space stocks are below where they were when they hit the market (and in many cases well behind original financial forecasts), but most are not on death's door.

For example, Earth orbital It won't be anywhere near the $411 million in revenue by 2023 that it forecast when it went public three years ago. But even though its share price is trading around 80 cents at a valuation of $156 million, Terran Orbital appears to have a lifeline from a key customer.

Earlier this month, Terran announced receipt of a large payment from its largest client, Rivada, and, on the same day, said its year-end cash was $70 million, up from $39 million at end of the third quarter.