On Tuesday, July 2, shares of satellite company Sidus Space rose almost 10% after the company announced that it had launched a payload for the ASTRA (Autonomous Satellite Technology for Resilient Applications) mission into space. This project is one of the 10 selected by NASA to explore deep space and study the possibilities around sending humans to the Moon and Mars.
Details
On Tuesday, Sidus Space’s stock surged 9.8% on the Nasdaq exchange to close at $2.46 per share. After the close, it gave up about 5%. Meanwhile, since the beginning of the year, it is off 72%.
Tuesday’s surge followed the company’s announcement that it had launched equipment for the ASTRA project into orbit in collaboration with NASA’s Stennis Space Center. The mission’s goal is to demonstrate autonomous operations in a spaceflight environment.
ASTRA is one of the 10 projects selected by NASA to support the development of capabilities for deep space human exploration, in particular for Project Polaris, which aims to meet the challenges of sending humans to the Moon and Mars.
Context
Sidus Space provides space services. It is developing the LizzieSat constellation, which is to serve as a space infrastructure platform providing space-based data to meet customers’ needs, said company founder Carol Craig in an interview with Forbes. Note that Craig is one of the first women eligible to fly in combat aircraft as a Naval flight officer.
Sidus plans to launch a total of 100 satellites, allowing its clients to integrate their sensors and technologies. The first was launched into space in March 2024 as part of SpaceX’s Transporter-10 rideshare mission.
ASTRA was a payload aboard the LizzieSat satellite. Following the completion of the ASTRA payload activation and ASTRA software remote update, the plan includes focusing on onboard data collection and a demonstration of ASTRA application on-orbit capabilities, according to Sidus Space’s announcement.
The autonomous system capabilities demonstrated by ASTRA will be immediately applicable to the Artemis mission, NASA’s lunar exploration program.
What about the stock
According to MarketWatch, one analyst covers Sidus Space. It is rated a buy, with a target price of $10 per share, indicating upside of 306% from the last closing price.
