Struggling commercial space company Momentus Inc. launched a registered direct offering of Class A common stock and warrants Thursday, hoping to generate $4 million in much needed capital.
The announcement comes on the heels of NASA's decision to enter into a five-year contract with the Santa Clara-based company to provide flight and payload integration services to the space agency.
As part of the deal Momentus will receive $45 million from the U.S. government.
Founded in 2017 by Russian cofounders Mikhail Kokorich and Lev Khasis, the company was at one time valued at more than $1 billion.
However, in 2021 it went public via a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) which led to an investigation of fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Once the SPAC IPO was approved, the company's value dropped to $567 million. Both Kokorich and Khasis left the company, and former U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy John Rood was made CEO.
Despite bringing some much-needed stability to the company, progress has been slow.
In December 2023, the company laid off about 20% of its workforce in a cost-cutting move and in January told investors in an SEC filing of its "inability to support continuing operations for the expected launch date as a result of the Company’s limited liquidity and cash balance as of the time of the notice to customers."
Momentus promises "last mile delivery" of microsatellites in its space tugboats, spacecraft that "piggyback" into orbit on much larger launch vehicles.
The company's Vigoride-7 was expected to launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-10 in March.
