{"id":17540,"date":"2021-06-08T00:13:44","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T16:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/after-getting-a-boost-from-craig-mccaw-astra-rocket-venture-gets-set-to-go-public-on-july-1\/"},"modified":"2021-06-08T00:13:44","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T16:13:44","slug":"after-getting-a-boost-from-craig-mccaw-astra-rocket-venture-gets-set-to-go-public-on-july-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/after-getting-a-boost-from-craig-mccaw-astra-rocket-venture-gets-set-to-go-public-on-july-1\/","title":{"rendered":"After getting a boost from Craig McCaw, Astra rocket venture gets set to go public on July 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_602621\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-602621\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-602621\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Launch-Photo-1-630x355.jpg\" alt=\"Astra liftoff\" width=\"630\" height=\"355\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Launch-Photo-1-630x355.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Launch-Photo-1-1260x709.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Launch-Photo-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Launch-Photo-1.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-602621\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Astra\u2019s Rocket 3.1 blasts off from the company\u2019s launch complex in Alaska. (Astra Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Astra, the California-based space startup that\u2019s aiming to merge with a blank-check company founded by Seattle telecom pioneer Craig McCaw, has set a July 1 target date to go public on Nasdaq.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the word from Chris Kemp, Astra\u2019s founder, chairman and CEO. \u201cWe will start mailing proxy statements today for shareholders of $HOL to vote ahead of the shareholder meeting on 6\/30,\u201d Kemp said in a LinkedIn posting. $HOL is the symbol for Holicity, McCaw\u2019s special purpose acquisition company in Kirkland, Wash.<\/p>\n<p>The Astra-Holicity SPAC deal values Kemp\u2019s company at $2.1 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Astra\u2019s Rocket 3.2 launch vehicle made it to space during a test launch from Alaska in December but narrowly missed reaching orbit. Since then, the company has been preparing for its next launch \u2014 and racking up business deals.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Astra announced an agreement to work on a multi-launch mission for Planet\u2019s Earth observation satellites in 2022. And today, Astra said it would acquire Apollo Fusion in a transaction valued at up to $145 million. The deal is due to close after Astra goes public.<\/p>\n<p>Apollo Fusion manufactures the electric propulsion system that\u2019s due to be used on one of the variants of Seattle-based Spaceflight Inc.\u2019s Sherpa orbital tug. The first Sherpa-LTE is scheduled for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than this month.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Astra's Race to Space\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fzGv9R2UFhM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn addition to increasing Astra\u2019s total addressable market for launch services, the acquisition of Apollo Fusion accelerates Astra\u2019s ability to efficiently deliver and operate spacecraft beyond low Earth orbit,\u201d Kemp said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>McCaw, 71, is best-known as a trailblazer in the cellular phone industry. McCaw Cellular was sold to AT&amp;T in 1994 for $11.5 billion. Craig McCaw\u2019s other telecom ventures have included Nextel, Clearwire and Teledesic.<\/p>\n<p>The Teledesic satellite telecom venture fizzled out in the 1990s. But when the Astra-Holicity deal was announced in February, McCaw said that space companies like Astra \u2014 coupled with satellite ventures like SpaceX\u2019s Starlink and Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper \u2014 were finally making good on Teledesic\u2019s promise of global connectivity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve long believed that there has been an amazing opportunity to provide communication satellites, essentially an internet in the sky, with the opportunity to provide the internet anywhere and everywhere, fulfilling one of humanity\u2019s great needs \u2014 and very consistent with the needs represented by a pandemic,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cWe see all of that happening now with the Starlink and Kuiper constellations coming with thousands of satellites.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Soon after the Astra-Holicity SPAC deal was announced, McCaw founded yet another SPAC called Colicity, which has a $345 million war chest and is focused on technology, media and telecom investments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Astra\u2019s Rocket 3.1 blasts off from the company\u2019s launch complex in Alaska. (Astra Photo) Astra, the California-based space startup that\u2019s aiming to merge with a blank-check company founded by Seattle telecom pioneer Craig McCaw, has set a July 1 target date to go public on Nasdaq. That\u2019s the word from Chris Kemp, Astra\u2019s founder, chairman [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1941,4642,4734,4735],"class_list":["post-17540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astra","tag-astra-space","tag-craig-mccaw","tag-holicity"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}