mnts-20211231
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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021
OR
For the transition period from ____ to ____
Commission file number 001-39128
Momentus Inc
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
3901 N. First StreetSan Jose, California 95134
(Address of Principal Executive Offices) (Zip Code)
(650) 564-7820
Registrant's telephone number, including area code
Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
Class A common stock MNTS The Nasdaq Capital Market LLC
Warrants MNTSW The Nasdaq Capital Market LLC
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.
Yes oNox
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.
Yes oNox
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports); and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yesx No o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).
Yesx No o
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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer o Accelerated filer o
Non-accelerated filer x Smaller reporting company x
Emerging growth company x
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.
o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.
o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes o No x
The aggregate market value of voting stock held by non-affiliates of the Stable Road Acquisition Corp. (“SRAC”), our predecessor on June 30, 2021, based on the closing price of $13.97 for shares of the SRAC’s Class A common stock, was approximately $241.7 million. Shares of common stock beneficially owned by each executive officer, director, and holder of more than 10% of SRAC’s Class A common stock have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.
The registrant had outstanding 81,211,781 shares of common stock as of December 31, 2021.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
None.
Auditor Firm Id: 32 Auditor Name: Armanino LLP Auditor Location: San Ramon, CA
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
PART - I
Item 1. Business 6
Item 1A. Risk Factors 18
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 47
Item 2. Properties 48
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 48
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 50
Part II
Item 6. Selected Financial Data 51
Item 7. Momentus’ Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition 52
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures 65
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 67
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants 69
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 69
Item 9B. Other Information 69
Part III.
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 69
Item 11. Executive Compensation 69
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions 70
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees 70
Part IV.
Signature 73
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K (this "Form 10-K”), including, without limitation, statements under the headings "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the "Securities Act") and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, (the "Exchange Act"). Generally, statements that are not historical facts, including statements concerning Momentus Inc.’s (the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) possible or assumed future actions, business strategies, events, or results of operations, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the words "believes," "estimates," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "may," "will," "potential," "projects," "predicts," "continue," or "should," or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. There can be no assurance that actual results will not materially differ from expectations.
The forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us. Future developments affecting us may not be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) and other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the ability of the Company to obtain licenses and government approvals for its missions, which are essential to its operations; the ability of the Company to effectively market and sell satellite transport services and planned in-orbit services; the ability of the Company to protect its intellectual property and trade secrets; the development of markets for satellite transport and in-orbit services; the ability of the Company to develop, test and validate its technology, including its water plasma propulsion technology; delays or impediments that the Company may face in the development, manufacture and deployment of next generation satellite transport systems; the ability of the Company to convert backlog or inbound inquiries into revenue; changes in applicable laws or regulations and extensive and evolving government regulations that impact operations and business, including export control license requirements; the ability to attract or maintain a qualified workforce with the required security clearances and requisite skills; level of product service or product or launch failures or delays that could lead customers to use competitors’ services; investigations, claims, disputes, enforcement actions, litigation and/or other regulatory or legal proceedings; the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company’s business; the Company’s ability to comply with the terms of its National Security Agreement and any related compliance measures instituted by the director who was approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) Monitoring Agencies (the “Security Director”); the possibility that the Company may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and/or other risks and uncertainties described under Item 1A: "Risk Factors." Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. These risks and others described under Item 1A: "Risk Factors" may not be exhaustive.
By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. We caution you that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that our actual results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and developments in the industry in which we operate may differ materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements. In addition, even if our results or operations, financial condition and liquidity, and developments in the industry in which we operate are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods.
Summary of Risk Factors
Risks Related to the Business and Industry of Momentus
•We have not yet delivered customer satellites into orbit using any of our transfer and service vehicles, and any setbacks we may experience during our initial mission and other demonstration and commercial missions could have a material adverse effect on our business
•A key component of our business model is the delivery of satellites using our vehicles from low earth orbit to other orbits. The technology for this maneuver is still in the development stage and has not been validated through actual deployment and testing in space.
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•We may not receive all required governmental licenses and approvals
•We have incurred significant losses since inception, we expect to incur losses in the future and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability.
•We may not be successful in developing new technology, and the technology we are successful in developing may not meet the needs of our customers or potential new customers.
•We operate in highly competitive industries and in various jurisdictions across the world which may cause us to have to reduce our prices.
•Momentus’ limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate its future prospects and the risks and challenges it may encounter.
•The market for in-space infrastructure services has not been established with precision, may grow more slowly than expected.
•We may not be able to convert our orders in backlog into revenue.
•The cyclical nature of the space industry could negatively impact our ability to accurately forecast customer demand. We may not be able to maintain adequate gross margins or profits in these markets.
•We are dependent on third-party launch vehicles to launch our vehicles and customer payloads into space and any delay could have a material adverse impact to our financial condition and results of operations.
•We may be unable to manage our future growth effectively, which could make it difficult to execute our business strategy.
•We may experience a total loss of our vehicle and our customers’ payloads during the launch into space.
•Our business involves significant risks and uncertainties that may not be covered by insurance.
•If our spacecraft fail to operate as intended, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
•We cannot provide assurances that our satellites will continue to operate successfully in space throughout their expected operational lives.
•Our revenue, results of operations and reputation may be negatively impacted if our satellites fail to meet contractual requirements or our products contain defects or fail to operate in the expected manner.
•Our secured loan facility contains various covenants that limit our management’s discretion in the operation of our business.
•We rely on a limited number of suppliers for certain raw materials and supplied components. We may not be able to obtain sufficient raw materials or supplied components to meet our manufacturing and operating needs.
•We expect to face intense competition in satellite transport and related services and other services which we may develop in the space transportation industry.
•If we fail to adequately protect our intellectual property rights or our intellectual property applications for registration fail to become issued or registered, our competitive position could be impaired.
•We may experience warranty claims for failures, schedule delays or other problems with existing or new products.
•We are subject to various requirements and restrictions under the NSA, and we are incurring significant costs to comply with those requirements and may be subject to significant monetary penalties if we are found not to be in compliance with the requirements and restrictions under the NSA. In addition, restrictions under the NSA could limit our business activities.
•The Security Director required by the NSA has substantial latitude over certain business decisions and operations of Momentus, and to the extent that certain arrangements relating to the Security Director are determined not to be permitted by the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”), such arrangements could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
•We are highly dependent on our senior management team and other highly skilled personnel, and if we are not successful in attracting or retaining highly qualified personnel, we may not be able to successfully implement our business strategy.
•Our operating results may fluctuate significantly, which makes our future operating results difficult to predict and could cause our operating results to fall below expectations or any guidance we may provide.
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•If we fail to develop and maintain an effective system of internal controls, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be adversely affected, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us.
•We are currently involved in a litigation as well as may become involved in future litigations that may materially adversely affect us
•Momentus’ management team has limited experience managing a public company and several members have been with Momentus for less than 12 months.
Regulatory Risks
•We are subject to stringent U.S. export and import control laws and regulations. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
•Our business is subject to a wide variety of additional extensive and evolving government laws and regulations. Failure to comply with such laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business.
•While Momentus currently has a contract with the U.S. Government, our customers and suppliers could be materially impacted by disruptions in U.S. government operations and funding could have a material adverse effect on our revenues, earnings and cash flows, and otherwise adversely affect our financial condition.
•Changes in U.S. government policy regarding use of commercial data or space infrastructure / mission providers, or material delay or cancellation of certain U.S. government programs, may have a material adverse effect on our business
•Contracts with the U.S. government subject us to risks including early termination, audits, investigations, sanctions and penalties.
Risks Related to Ownership of Class A Common Stock
•An active trading market for Class A common stock may never develop or be sustained, which may make it difficult to sell the shares of Class A common stock you receive.
•The market price of our Class A common stock and warrants may be volatile, which could cause the value of your investment to decline.
•Future sales of shares by Company officers, directors, other insiders or existing stockholders and future exercise of registration rights may adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.
•We do not plan to declare any dividends in the foreseeable future.
•If securities and industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research or reports, about our business or our market, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
•Our charter documents and Delaware law could prevent a takeover that stockholders consider favorable and could also reduce the market price of the Class A common stock.
PART I
Item 1. Business
Unless the context otherwise requires, all references in this section to the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our” refer to Momentus.
Background and Business Combination
On August 12, 2021, the Company consummated a merger pursuant to certain Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated October 7, 2020, and as amended on March 5, 2021, April 6, 2021, and June 29, 2021 (the “Merger Agreement”), by and among Stable Road Acquisition Corp (“SRAC”), Project Marvel First Merger Sub, Inc., a Delaware corporation and a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of SRAC (“First Merger Sub”), and Project Marvel Second Merger Sub, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of SRAC (“Second Merger Sub”), pursuant to which First Merger Sub merged with and into Momentus Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Legacy Momentus”) with Legacy Momentus as the surviving corporation of the First Merger Sub, and immediately
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following which Legacy Momentus merged with and into the Second Merger Sub, with the Second Merger Sub as the surviving entity (the “Business Combination”). In connection with the closing of the Business Combination (the “Closing”), the Company changed its name from Stable Road Acquisition Corp. to Momentus Inc., and Legacy Momentus changed its name to Momentus Space, LLC.
The Business Combination was accounted for as a reverse recapitalization under ASC Topic 805, Business Combinations ("ASC 805") in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”). Under this method of accounting, SRAC, who was the legal acquirer, is treated as the “acquired” company for financial reporting purposes and Legacy Momentus is treated as the accounting acquirer. Accordingly, for accounting purposes, the Business Combination is treated as the equivalent of a capital transaction in which Legacy Momentus issued stock for the net assets of SRAC, with no goodwill or other intangible assets recorded, and Legacy Momentus’ financial statements became those of the Company. Reported shares and earnings per share available to holders of the Company’s common stock, prior to the Business Combination, have been retroactively restated as shares reflecting the exchange ratio established in the Business Combination. See Note 3 for more information.
Pursuant to the Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of the Company, at the Closing, each share of SRAC’s Class B Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share (the “Class B Common Stock”), converted into one share of SRAC’s Class A Common Stock. After the Closing and following the effectiveness of the Second Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of the Company, each share of Class A Common Stock was automatically reclassified, redesignated and changed into one validly issued, fully paid and non-assessable share of the Company’s Class A common stock, par value $0.00001 per share, without any further action by the Company or any stockholder thereof.
Prior to the Business Combination, SRAC’s units, public shares, and public warrants were listed on the Nasdaq under the symbols “SRACU,” “SRAC,” and “SRACW,” respectively. On August 13, 2021, the Company's Class A common stock and public warrants began trading on the Nasdaq, under the symbols “MNTS” and “MNTSW,” respectively.
On October 7, 2020 and subsequently amended on July 15, 2021, SRAC entered into subscription agreements with certain investors (the “PIPE Investors”) to which such investors collectively subscribed for an aggregate of 11,000,000 shares of the Company’s Class A common stock at $10.00 per share for aggregate gross proceeds of $110.0 million (the “PIPE Investment”). The PIPE Investors were also granted an equal number of private warrants to purchase the Company’s Class A common stock at $11.50 per share. The warrants were recorded as a derivative liability under ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging and the warrant liability was initially valued at $30.5 million. See Note 11 for more information. The PIPE Investment was consummated concurrently with the closing of the Business Combination.
Overview
Momentus is a U.S. commercial space company that plans to offer transportation and infrastructure services to help enable the commercialization of space. Satellite operators are our principal customers and target customers. Services that we plan to provide include “last mile” satellite transportation, payload-hosting, on-orbit satellite refueling, on-orbit inspection, on-orbit satellite maintenance, de-orbiting, debris removal, and other satellite-to-satellite service offerings. We believe our planned service offerings will increase deployment options for satellite operators and lower their operating costs relative to traditional approaches while also minimizing environmental impact given our choice of water as a propellant.
We plan to provide these services with Orbital Transfer Vehicles (“OTVs”) that we design and manufacture. While we plan to eventually operate a family of progressively larger and more capable OTVs, we are currently focused on developing the first vehicle of the family, Vigoride, which will primarily operate in low earth orbit (LEO). We believe that Vigoride, once further developed, tested and validated, will have the potential to deliver fast, versatile, and cost-effective transportation and infrastructure services to our customers. We anticipate performing our inaugural mission with Vigoride as early as June 2022, subject to receipt of licenses and government approvals, and successful completion of our current efforts to get the system ready for flight. Refer to our risk factor “We may not receive all required governmental licenses and approvals”
Our transportation service offering will focus on delivering our customers’ satellites to precision orbits of their choosing. To accomplish this, we plan to create a hub-and-spoke transportation network in partnership with leading launch service providers, such as SpaceX. Under this model, our customers’ satellites would “ride share” from Earth to space on a midsized or large rocket. Our OTVs would then provide “last mile” transportation services from the rocket’s drop-off orbit to a custom orbit of the satellite operator’s choosing. We believe our hub-and-spoke model
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has the potential to expand our customers’ deployment options relative to what they would be able to achieve with ride share launch alone, while reducing their costs relative to what they could achieve with a dedicated small launch vehicle. Over time, we plan to begin introducing additional services beyond “last mile” transportation.
Our OTVs will initially be expendable, meaning they will de-orbit themselves upon completion of their first mission. However, our goal is to eventually make our OTVs reusable, or capable of remaining in space to conduct follow-on missions, which has the potential to lower our cost to deliver services to our customers. To achieve reusability, we need to develop additional technologies that will allow our vehicles to 1.) locate and navigate to customer satellites in space, 2.) physically connect to them, and 3.) perform a variety of robotic operations including fluid transfer. We are developing these capabilities for Vigoride, but expect them to be scalable to work with larger vehicles that we plan to develop in the future. Refer to “Risk Factors — A key component of our business model is the delivery of satellites using our vehicles from low earth orbit to other orbits. The technology for this maneuver is still in the development stage...”
Since our founding in 2017, we have been working to develop, test and enhance our vehicles and supporting technologies, particularly our water plasma propulsion technology. We have signed contracts for approximately $67 million in backlog (potential revenue), as of January 31, 2022. These agreements contain firm orders as well as options, allowing customers to opt-in to launches on shorter notice without requiring a separate agreement. The breadth of these signed contracts spans across 24 companies. In general, our customers have the right to cancel their contracts with the understanding that they will forgo their deposits. If a customer cancels a contract before it is required to pay non-refundable deposits, we may not receive revenue from these orders, except for an initial deposit which is paid at the time the contract is signed. Refer to “Risk Factors —We may not be able to convert our orders in backlog into revenue.”
Commercial Space Industry
Our services are made possible by the space industry’s rapid technological developments over the past two decades, driven predominantly by significant decreases in launch costs, as well as the advent of smaller, lower-cost satellites. This convergence of trends has led to increased access to space, new market entrants and accelerated growth in the number of commercial satellites being placed into orbit.
In the launch market, we believe we are witnessing significant shifts caused by the emergence of large, partially reusable rockets such as SpaceX’s Falcon-9 and Blue Origin’s New Glenn, and the advent of new fully reusable vehicles such as SpaceX’s Starship and Relativity’s Terran R. Reliable, low-cost access to space is lowering the entry barriers for new service models and has allowed new entrants to grow quickly. In the future, we anticipate further disruption from a new breed of much larger, fully reusable rockets such as Starship. With these much larger rockets, launch costs could fall far enough to enable new applications that would not be economically viable with current generation launch vehicles.
Another paradigm shift in the commercial space market is the rise of the small satellite (smallsat). Prior to 2018, only a few dozen smallsats (total mass below approximately 200 kg) were launched per year. Today, the number has grown to several hundred per year and is on track to reach more than several thousand per year. Moreover, the rise of this market has also created a new market segment in microsatellites (total mass below approximately 100 kg) and nanosatellites (total mass below approximately 10 kg). While these satellites can be deployed individually, they can also be operated as part of a constellation, a large group of satellites interconnected to provide a service, such as the Starlink satellite constellation’s offering of global internet connectivity.
Smallsat proliferation has led operators to explore new ways of accessing space. To meet their needs, small launch providers (i.e., small rockets carrying up to approximately 500kg) have emerged as options for smaller payloads. While accessing space often costs up to ten times more per kilogram on a small rocket compared to a large rocket, such as Falcon-9, it is often uneconomical for small satellite operators to purchase a dedicated large rocket that may have up to one hundred times more payload capacity than a small rocket. “Ride sharing” on a large rocket is a more accessible option as it can drastically lower the cost for a small satellite operator to reach space, albeit with reduced deployment options compared to a dedicated launch vehicle as “ride share” payloads are often all released into the same orbit. Conversely, a dedicated small rocket, while more expensive compared to ride sharing on a larger rocket, can increase deployment options for small satellite operators by offering them direct access to precision orbits of their choosing.
We anticipate there could be considerable growth over the coming years in the space transportation segment as companies continue to seek versatile and low-cost ways to deliver single satellites to specific orbits or deploy their satellite constellations. We anticipate that the need for small satellite transportation to LEO will continue to drive overall demand growth for space transportation services in the short-term as technology advancements continue to
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make space more accessible to new market entrants, although new applications beyond LEO are also emerging. We also believe that over the next decade, new space-based businesses may emerge, for example the generation of solar energy in space, space manufacturing or space data processing. The advent of these new business models could substantially increase demand for space transportation and other space infrastructure services.
Beyond transportation, we anticipate that growth of the satellite constellations market may drive demand for our Hosted Payload, on-orbit satellite refueling, on-orbit inspection, on-orbit satellite maintenance, de-orbiting, debris removal, and other satellite-to-satellite service offerings, if we are successful in executing on our business plan, including fully developing and validating our technology in space. Satellite constellations have relatively low lifespans and, in our view, will require maintenance, de-orbiting, and other general servicing with higher frequency.
Planned Service Offerings
We are developing our OTVs to provide safe, affordable, reliable, and regular in-space services to our customers, including Space Transportation, Payload Hosting, and In-Orbit Servicing. We are designing our Vigoride vehicle to deliver small customer payloads anywhere in LEO. However, we also plan to design larger vehicles to carry larger payloads to more distant orbits.
If our technology is fully developed and validated in the future, we currently plan to provide the following infrastructure services to the space economy:
•Space Transportation: We are designing a space transportation service based on a hub-and-spoke model, which combines ride share launch on a medium or large rocket with last-mile delivery using one of our OTVs. Under this model, our customers will deliver their payload to us a few months prior to launch for integration onto our vehicle. Once we have integrated our customers’ payloads, we will then ship our vehicle, holding the customer payload fixture, to the launch site, where it will be integrated onto the rocket. The rocket will then transport our vehicle to the drop-off orbit. After separation from the rocket, our vehicle will transport our customers’ payloads to their chosen final orbit.
We believe our hub-and-spoke model has the potential to expand our customers’ deployment options relative to what they could achieve with ride share launch alone, while reducing their costs relative to what they could achieve with a dedicated small launch vehicle. For example, a microsatellite operator could ride share launch to a standard orbit on a large rocket for as little as $5,000 per kilogram. Alternatively, transportation to a custom orbit on a dedicated small rocket could cost a microsat operator more than $70,000 per kilogram. We plan to price our hub-and-spoke transportation services to custom orbits above competing ride-share services to standard orbits, but below what a satellite operator would need to pay to access a custom orbit using a dedicated small rocket.
•Hosted Payload: We believe our customers can lower their manufacturing costs by applying modularity and standardization to a satellite’s design. In the future, we plan to develop a modular approach to satellite systems through our subscription-based Hosted Payload service. This service is designed to help our customers avoid a meaningful capital outlay to design and manufacture a bespoke satellite as they would under traditional business models, which assumed tight integration of a given payload with its satellite bus. The traditionally bespoke approach to satellite design and manufacturing was a natural consequence of infrequent, expensive launches. Most satellites were one-of-a-kind, and designers would do their best to optimize each satellite’s mass for its mission, given the constraints imposed by the pre-selected launch vehicle. However, as low-cost Earth-to-orbit transportation has become more prevalent, bespoke satellite design and manufacturing costs have come to dominate over launch.
We are designing our transfer vehicles for modularity and ease of integration with customer payloads, and with a full suite of capabilities that our customers will need on orbit. Under our Hosted Payload model, our vehicle, after transporting a customer payload to a specific orbit, would stay connected to the payload for the duration of its mission to provide continuous power, orbit maintenance, orientation, and communications to support telemetry, commanding, and downlinking of payload data. Our objective is to offer a higher degree of modularity which we believe has the potential to significantly increase orbital accessibility and/or lower manufacturing costs for a wide range of satellite operators.
•In-Orbit Servicing: We view in-orbit servicing of satellites as a quickly growing business opportunity. As the number of satellites in space increases, so does their need to be serviced. We plan to design Momentus’ future reusable vehicles to be capable of performing in-orbit servicing and are pursuing development activities that support this objective. Although we are still in very preliminary stages for developing this technology, our aim is to equip future vehicles with robotic arms and an ability to maneuver in close
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proximity to other spacecraft and dock or berth with them. Once fully developed, we believe these capabilities could allow us to offer a suite of different in-orbit services, such as inspection, refueling, life extension, re-positioning, salvage missions, maintenance and repair, and de-orbiting.
Total Addressable Market for Our Services
According to Morgan Stanley, the broader space economy is projected to grow from approximately $350 billion in 2016 to over $1 trillion by 2040.
According to Stratistics, the space transportation market is projected to increase from approximately $10 billion in 2018 to approximately $35 billion in 2026. This estimate includes launch services as well as in-space transportation.
Deutsche Bank estimates the current total addressable market (“TAM”) for in-space transportation to be approximately $2 billion annually, and projects this market to approximately double to $4 billion by 2025 including $2-2.5 billion for onboard satellite propulsion and $1.5-2 billion for “space tugs” (OTVs). While this estimate excludes launch services, we would note that we generally bundle launch services from third-party providers with our in-space transportation services.
Our Service Vehicles
Our primary research and development objectives focus on the development of our existing and future in-space transfer and service vehicles and related water plasma propulsion technology.
Vigoride is the first vehicle that we are developing. Once fully developed, tested and validated in space, we expect Vigoride will be sufficient to meet our initial operating plan of offering in-space transportation in LEO to small satellites. We plan to offer services with our Vigoride vehicle beginning as early as June 2022, subject to receipt of licenses and government approvals, and successful completion of our current efforts to get the system ready for flight. The success of our in-space infrastructure services business will depend on our ability to successfully and regularly deliver customer satellites into custom orbits. We have ground-tested several Vigoride vehicles in preparation for flight, including, where appropriate, subsystem- and system level environmental testing, performance testing, and life testing in relevant environments, but we have yet to fly any of these vehicles in space.
Vigoride is intended to transport up to 750 kg of customer payload in LEO, although our payload capacity will likely be lower in most common configurations. We have set the delta-v and host power objectives for Vigoride at 2 km/sec and 1 kW, respectively, which we believe we can achieve a few years into our product roadmap. We have entered into a launch services agreement with SpaceX that secures space for Vigoride on a launch vehicle that SpaceX currently targets operating in June 2022. This would represent the inaugural launch of a complete Momentus vehicle into space and would allow us to further validate Vigoride’s capabilities. While securing space on the manifest is an important step, our plan to launch in June remains subject to the receipt of licenses and other government approvals, and successful completion of our current efforts to get the system ready for flight.
Our planned June launch is intended to be a demonstration mission. While we plan to take a few paying customer payloads along, the primary goals of our inaugural mission are to test Vigoride on orbit and learn from any issues that we may encounter. The lessons learned from this initial flight will help inform changes we can make to future missions as we seek to ultimately certify a design for production. Depending on the nature of issues we encounter, our schedule for future launches and other planned activities could be adversely affected. There can be no assurance that we will not experience operational or process failures and other problems during our inaugural mission or on any other mission. Any failures or setbacks, particularly on our inaugural mission, could harm our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation.
Because our technologies have not yet been fully tested, our service offering to our customers on our inaugural mission will be limited. To reflect this, we expect to provide discounts to customers on this mission relative to the price we intend to eventually charge for our transportation services. During our inaugural mission, we plan to demonstrate Vigoride’s ability to deploy satellites at the point at which it is dropped off by the launch vehicle, rather than independently maneuver customer satellites to custom orbits. Once all customer payloads have been released, we plan to perform certain maneuvers and technology demonstrations to validate our technology and establish the potential commercial viability of our strategy. This approach limits risk for us as well as for our customers.
Beyond our planned June launch, we are planning to fly Vigoride again in the second half of 2022, subject to receipt of licenses and government approvals, and successful completion of our current efforts to get the system ready for flight.
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Early Vigoride vehicles will not be reusable, meaning that we will de-orbit them following delivery of their customer payloads. However, around the middle of this decade, we plan to make our vehicles capable of reuse such that, upon delivery of their payloads, they will be able to remain in space to conduct follow-on missions. Establishing reusable vehicles will require significant additional research and technological developments. We believe our choice of water as a propellant will help with the creation of reusable vehicles because water can be stored without special conditions, other than ensuring lines and tanks do not freeze or become obstructed with ice, for an indefinite amount of time and pumped easily. Additionally, water is safe and non-hazardous relative to commonly used propellants such as cryogenic components and hypergolic toxic fuels for chemical propulsion, or highly pressurized noble gases (such as Xenon or Krypton) for electrical propulsion. We believe that if we are able to achieve reusability, it will allow us to lower manufacturing and launch costs on a per-ride basis and achieve higher margins and returns for our investors while also reducing our environmental impact.
Beyond Vigoride, we envision bringing two progressively larger vehicles to market, which we call Ardoride and Fervoride. These vehicles will be similar to our Vigoride vehicle, but with larger structures, larger solar arrays, and more powerful propulsion systems in order to carry progressively larger payloads progressively further from Earth.
Water Plasma Propulsion Technology Overview
We believe our water plasma propulsion technology can provide a competitive advantage for our vehicles and services. The technology is being designed to work as follows: Solar panels attached to our vehicle capture solar energy, which is then converted into microwave energy using standard microwave conversion technology, for which we currently use a magnetron. However, our objective is to shift to solid-state power amplifiers in the future. The conversion technology then takes direct current (“DC”) power from the solar arrays and storage batteries and outputs the energy in the form of microwaves into the thrust chamber. Once in the chamber, microwave energy is transferred into the water propellant, creating steam, which is forced through a separate injector. The water is then heated into a plasma state and expelled from the thruster through a separate nozzle, thus creating a propulsive force. This propulsion is what would create motion in space.
What we believe to be unique to this technology is its potential ability to be designed for specific combinations of ISP and thrust to improve in-space transportation operations. We believe other space propulsion technologies are unlikely to be designed to operate at the same mix of ISP and delta v, resulting in each having its disadvantages for transportation missions. We believe our technology has the potential to achieve considerable propulsive thrust levels while maintaining high ISP, which would enable shorter mission duration, enhanced reach, and higher payload mass ratios. Our objective is to evolve towards larger and more capable vehicles, and if we are successful in meeting this objective, we expect this technology’s potential capabilities to scale well. We believe modifications will revolve around research and engineering to increase the size of the water tanks, radiation-hardening for our vehicles’ components, and further scaling our thruster technology. While these potential capabilities will require significant development time and expense, we believe that our highly experienced team of engineers will help enable us to successfully enhance and scale our key technologies.
We chose water as our propellant for several reasons. We believe water is significantly safer than all chemical alternatives, allowing for safe testing and associated operating cost savings across the entire testing chain. Beyond testing, water is a safe resource that we believe will also be considerably safer in space than propellants that introduce risk of accidental combustion. Water can also be stored efficiently at low pressures and over the temperature ranges in which spacecraft equipment typically operates, subject to ensuring lines and tanks do not freeze or become obstructed with ice. This avoids the need for high-pressure tanks which themselves pose an explosion hazard.
Another potential key advantage of our technology is its low cost of production and maintenance. Our engine design consists of inexpensive and readily available materials, resulting in an overall simple design and a vehicle whose propulsion, structure, avionics, and mechanisms can be efficiently and vertically integrated.
Although we believe our water plasma propulsion technology will be a key differentiator for our product offerings, to date, we have only conducted a single test of this technology in space. Although we believe our test unit generated plasma in space and validated the theoretical basis of our technology, we have yet to experimentally confirm the unit’s ability to generate thrust in space, which is crucial to our ability to perform real on-orbit maneuvers. Until we can accomplish this, the technology will remain in the experimental stages. Moreover, even if the unit generates thrust, there can be no assurance that it can be operated in a manner that is sufficiently reliable and efficient to permit full commercialization of the technology. Our statements and beliefs about the viability of our technology are primarily based on theoretical analyses and experimentally observed results during ground testing and our single test of this technology in space. Development of space technologies is extremely complex, time consuming, and
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expensive, and there can be no assurance that our predicted theoretical and ground-based results will translate into operational space vehicles that operate within the parameters we expect, or at all.
This Annual Report on Form 10-K describes Momentus’ current business plans for continuing to develop its technology and marketing its products, however there can be no assurance that Momentus will be able to successfully develop its technologies and implement them in commercially viable vehicles. For a further description of the risks associated with our business, see Risk Factors below.
Development Timeline
Momentus has continued to evolve and improve its microwave electro-thermal (“MET”) technology since development began in 2017. Our first-generation X-band thruster, which operates at 30 Watts, was flown aboard a demonstration mission called El Camino Real in mid-2019. During this mission, Momentus launched its first MET into space as a hosted payload on a nanosatellite. The mission’s objective was to demonstrate the MET’s ability to produce water plasma in space by performing 100 one-minute firings. The MET was instrumented with temperature, pressure and RF reflected power sensors to infer the presence of water plasma, which if detected, would indicate that the water propellant was flowing into the thrust chamber and radio frequency energy was being absorbed by the water. Failure of the host satellite in November 2019 prematurely terminated the demonstration after only 23 of the planned 100 firings of the thruster had been performed including 12 hot firings with microwave power turned on and 11 cold firings with the microwave turned off. While a pump issue significantly restricted flow of water into the thruster during nine of the 12 hot firings, preventing plasma-generation, the three hot firings that did have water present were found to have produced plasma. Although pressure and temperature data did not provide sufficient information to either confirm or contradict plasma presence, Momentus believes that the reflected power data collected during the three hot firings with water present to be sufficient to conclude that plasma was produced. Reflected power data collected during these three in-space firings closely matched ground test data collected by similar or identical sensors and associated with observed successful firings of the MET where water plasma was generated. We have incorporated potential solutions to the aforementioned pump issue and other observed weaknesses from El Camino Real into subsequent iterations of our propulsion system design, pressure sensor selection and vehicle integration and test process.
The Vigoride vehicle was re-designed in 2020 to increase its payload capacity. Vigoride 2 was designed to use a pair of C-band MET which would each operate at 550 Watts at the target thrust level and approximately 75% of the target specific impulse (Isp) of our internal performance goal. This C-band thruster has undergone extensive development over the last several years. This early generation of the thruster was life tested to a reduced mission of 350 cycles (firings) and 35 hours of accumulated firing.
While Vigoride 1 and Vigoride 2 are both fully built and ground-tested, we do not currently intend to fly either vehicle in space. Both will be retained in storage and lessons learned from their production and ground-testing will be incorporated into future Vigoride vehicles that we intend to fly.
Vigoride 3 is being built with an upgraded 750-Watt version of the C-band MET with the aim of producing greater thrust. Unit qualification and system level functionality testing is complete, and, during the first quarter of 2022, the vehicle completed environmental testing in our thermal vacuum chamber, which simulates the environment in space. Our testing sequence is designed to uncover issues on the ground where we can deal with them more readily and effectively than we could in space. Over the next few weeks, the team will be addressing issues that were uncovered during thermal vacuum testing. After this, the vehicle will undergo vibration testing, which simulates the environment on the launch vehicle, and other ground tests. We expect Vigoride 3 to be fully qualified in the first half of 2022, before our planned inaugural launch, although the schedule is tight. See “Risk Factors — A key component of our business model is the delivery of satellites using our vehicles from lower earth orbit to other orbits. The technology for this maneuver is still in the development stage and has not been validated...”
Our Relationships with Launch Providers
We are designing each of our vehicles to be compatible with most rockets, and we have not entered into exclusivity arrangements with any single launch provider. We currently do not anticipate any changes to this approach, as we want to maximize our opportunities and retain the optionality to engage with other launch providers. Other advantages of maintaining a diverse set of launch partners include service resiliency in the event of launch failures and the subsequent grounding of a launch vehicle, access to otherwise protected markets through the use of specific launch vehicles and orbit diversity to provide access to all orbits of interest to our customers.
To date, we have entered into several launch services agreements including with SpaceX, Relativity Space, ABL Space Systems and Gilmour Space. Beyond these providers, we remain in active dialogue and believe we have
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strong relationships with Blue Origin, ULA, and several other small rocket providers. Our objective is to extend existing agreements or enter into new agreements as necessary to build a robust launch manifest and cadence. Our ability to achieve this objective relies heavily on whether or not we can successfully procure the necessary government licenses and approvals, and slots on the launch provider’s manifests, and whether we can successfully execute on our business plan, including fully developing and validating our technology in space.
We believe we have developed a strong relationship with SpaceX with which we maintain an innovative rideshare partnership. We believe the relationship between our companies is recognized as mutually beneficial. We believe Momentus could unlock a market for SpaceX by consolidating small satellites on our transport vehicles once we have fully developed, tested and validated them in space, which will then be launched by SpaceX on their Falcon-9 rideshare missions, and delivered by Momentus to their unique, respective orbits.
Made in Space Europe Relationship Overview
We plan to leverage our Hosted Payload capabilities, once fully developed, tested and validated in space, with Made In Space Europe, a subsidiary of Redwire. Made in Space Europe is developing a low-cost robotic arm that we believe will be well suited for use on Vigoride vehicles for robotic berthing operations, which are needed to enable reusability. Momentus is working with Made In Space Europe to provide mission-specific requirements to inform their robotic arm development. We anticipate conducting a joint in-orbit demonstration mission with Made In Space Europe, with the objective of demonstrating the arm’s ability to perform various tasks that may be needed for reusability and future servicing missions.
RBC Signals Relationship Overview
Momentus has chosen RBC Signals as our ground systems provider for Vigoride contemplated missions in LEO. We believe RBC’s extensive network of over 70 antennas located in over 50 geographic locations is well suited to support a high mission volume to diverse orbits. Furthermore, we believe RBC’s pay-per-pass model is an excellent fit for our currently contemplated, relatively short mission durations of several months (before reusability). We believe RBC’s ground network service offers a dramatic cost and complexity advantage over a dedicated ground network and significant cost advantages over other traditional ground system providers.
Competitive Advantages
We believe our ability to compete successfully as a commercial provider of space transportation and infrastructure services will depend on several factors including our ability to fully develop, test and validate our technology in space, our ability to establish and maintain a lead in technological advancements, the price of our offerings, customer confidence in the reliability of our offerings, and the frequency and availability of our offerings. If we are unable to fully develop, test and validate our technologies, we may be unable to execute on our business plan and will be unable to realize the following competitive advantages. We believe that our team’s collective expertise, coupled with the following strengths, may allow us to build our business and compete successfully.
•Focus on a service model with standardized, modular vehicles: Unlike traditional aerospace companies, which generally focus on selling hardware, Momentus is applying a service model for infrastructure services in space. We believe our service model will build long-lasting partnership relationships with satellite operators, which could create entry barriers for competitors.
•Unique technology with patents pending: We believe that our water plasma propulsion technology and its integration in our vehicles will allow us to provide in-space transportation services at significantly lower cost compared to what can be accomplished using traditional chemical or electrical propulsion systems. We plan to be the first company to commercialize and industrialize microwave electrothermal (MET) water propulsion technology for in-space transportation. While microwave electrothermal propulsion has been researched academically for decades, the commercial viability of the technology has not yet been fully tested or proven. Over the past several years, we have worked on developing our patent-pending water plasma propulsion technology, and we are designing our vehicles and services to incorporate this technology. We are in the process of creating a patent portfolio and, as of December 31, 2021, we had one issued patent and applications for nine additional patent families relating to our water plasma propulsion and other technologies. We believe that our issued patent, pending patent applications and trade secrets will make it more challenging for competitors who aspire to use MET propulsion technology.
•Mission-driven strategy: Momentus is a mission-driven company, which underpins our focus on our long-term vision and aligns all of our day-to-day activities in achieving this goal. In making decisions about our vehicles, services, technologies, or sales opportunities, we attempt to align our actions with our vision and
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mission. We believe this helps us make decisions quickly and move towards achieving our goal of developing Momentus as a key provider of space infrastructure services.
•Compatibility across launch providers: We have designed and will continue to design our future vehicles to be compatible with most launch vehicles. We believe this will give our customers flexibility around the timing and availability of launches and ensure a competitive market for our launch providers. As more rocket operators emerge, we will work to continue to actively incorporate compatibility to increase customer accessibility.
•Relationships with launch providers: We have relationships with several launch providers including SpaceX, Relativity Space, Gilmour Space, Blue Origin, ABL Space Systems and ULA. We believe our current rideshare partnership agreement with SpaceX will help us maximize the flexibility, economics, and optionality we can offer our customers. Additionally, as an aggregator of payloads, we believe we will be able to service customers from around the world who might not otherwise have access to launch options. Please see the above section titled “Our Relationships with Launch Providers” for additional details.
•Experienced management team and an industry-leading team of engineers: Many of our management team members have experience in large organizations, including the U.S. Department of Defense, Boeing, Raytheon, Maxar, and Lockheed Martin. Our team of engineers is similarly experienced, contributing hundreds of collective years in working in commercial satellite businesses at Boeing, Maxar, and SSL, among others. Our commercial team is also led and supported by individuals with considerable experience in commercial space sales. Our efficient vertical integration allows for significant cooperation and interactivity between teams.
Customer Overview
We have signed contracts for approximately $67 million in backlog (potential revenue), as of January 31, 2022. These agreements contain firm orders as well as options, allowing customers to opt-in to launches on shorter notice without requiring a separate agreement. We have seen significant interest across a range of satellite operators, satellite manufacturers, satellite aggregators, launch providers, and others. The majority of our signed contracts are with early adopters. Several will be launching experimental or pathfinder missions for their future satellite constellations. The breadth of these signed contracts spans 24 companies across 15 countries.
In general, our customers have the right to cancel their contracts with the understanding that they will forgo their deposits. If a customer cancels a contract before it is required to pay non-refundable deposits, we may not receive revenue from these orders, except for an initial deposit which is paid at the time the contract is signed.
For risks associated with these contracts, see our risk factor “We may not be able to convert our orders in backlog into revenue.”
Sales and Marketing
We plan to scale and accelerate our sales and marketing efforts and leverage industry partnerships to grow our customer base using a global network of sales professionals. Additionally, if we can successfully execute on our missions, we expect existing customers to exercise contract options and expand their contracts with us for the deployment of their future satellites. We plan to provide new service offerings and sales models over time to increase market share and grow the total addressable market for our in-space infrastructure services assuming we can successfully execute on our missions and business plan.
In addition to satellite manufacturers, we are pursuing engagements with payload aggregators to maximize the fill rates of our missions. We are also working on long term partnership agreements with specialized CubeSat satellite makers to become their partner of choice for rideshare services, to help realize a continuous cycle of returning customers. In addition, many rideshare aggregators are also satellite manufacturers that help create a vertical integration of services — for which our plan is to have Momentus serve as the link to complete end-to-end service for their customers.
As we believe a large percentage of the small satellite market is projected to be satellite constellations, which will require deployments, refreshing, in orbit maintenance and other services over their life-cycles (which are relatively short), we see this segment of the market as important. We currently have a number of pathfinder missions with customers that plan to develop satellite constellations after their test missions, and we are pursuing other satellite constellation customers who are in their early stages of development.
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While we are focusing on our early adopter market for in-space transportation, we are at the early stages of also rolling out our Hosted Payload service, and anticipate that this market segment will become a larger percentage of our business in the near and mid-term. We believe our potential customer base for this service has significant overlap with in-space transportation.
We anticipate the emergence of new businesses as the space economy continues to be unlocked and new applications are introduced. We plan to position ourselves to capture these emerging and adjacent markets which we believe will be enabled by the development of infrastructure services.
Regulatory
See “Risk Factors” for risks and uncertainties related to regulatory requirements.
Federal Communications Commission
The regulations, policies, and guidance issued by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) apply to the operation of our transport vehicles. When we communicate with our transport vehicles using any part of the electromagnetic spectrum, we are operating a space station to which FCC regulations apply. Operators of regulated space stations are required to hold and maintain compliance with proper licenses, and the specific conditions thereof throughout the duration of any given mission. Operators may also seek licenses in other jurisdictions in accordance with multilateral agreements governing the use of the spectrum, and such licenses would generally be accorded equal treatment by the United States. For the time being, we intend to utilize the FCC’s Special Temporary Authorization (“STA”) authorization type, as other rideshare aggregators and operators of unique limited duration missions regularly do, to license Momentus spacecraft. Although Momentus previously submitted multiple STA license applications, which have subsequently been withdrawn, we filed STA applications at the end of 2021 in support of two spacecraft scheduled to launch in June 2022. Subsequently, we withdrew one of the two applications since it was not needed.
The FCC recently enacted a new set of licensing guidelines for small satellites and related systems that may apply to future Momentus spacecraft and continues to pursue additional updated rulemaking that potentially impacts Momentus. As a result, we may face a transition in license types away from STA to the small satellite licensing guidelines under Part 25. The FCC is also currently considering additional rules which, among other things, could change the operational, technical and financial requirements for Momentus operations. If these proposed rules become final, they could change system design and financial costs in order to comply with or secure new Momentus spectrum licensure.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Momentus transport vehicles will operate with space-qualified photographic equipment installed. While primarily intended to function as mission assurance tools, these cameras will be capable of capturing incidental earth imagery while in orbit. As such, these cameras are subject to the licensing requirements and regulations of the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration's ("NOAA") Commercial Report Sensing Regulatory Affairs (“CRSRA”) office. We currently hold a license grant from CRSRA authorizing the first ten Vigoride missions.
The Federal Aviation Administration
As a participant in launch activities, we are indirectly subject to the license requirements of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (“FAA”) Office of Commercial Space Transportation (“AST”). The FAA regulates the airspace of the United States, through which launch vehicles must fly during launch to orbit. The AST office predominantly processes launch license requests submitted by launch vehicle operators, which include information on the constituent payloads flying on any given mission. As a result, reviews of our payloads by AST occur during, for example, the processing of a SpaceX launch license. During preparation for the inaugural Vigoride-1 mission, the FAA ultimately determined that it was unable to grant to SpaceX an approval of the Momentus payload for the SpaceX Transporter-1 launch in January 2021 due to national security and foreign ownership concerns regarding Momentus raised by the Department of Defense during an interagency review. Despite Momentus payloads being exempt from FAA payload review as a result of our existing NOAA grant, we initiated ongoing engagement with the FAA as part of a preemptive payload review unrelated to a launch license in contemplation of future launch activity. In May 2021, the FAA denied one of our payload review applications due to interagency concerns related to the corporate structure of Momentus at the time of denial. The FAA acknowledged that Momentus was engaged in addressing the concern and indicated that the FAA could reconsider the application once that process is complete. Momentus intends to refile FAA payload review applications in support of future missions which will reflect the ongoing efforts to address outstanding interagency concerns.
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The International Traffic in Arms Regulations and Export Controls
Our orbital infrastructure business is subject to, and we must comply with, stringent U.S. import and export control laws, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (the “ITAR”) of the U.S. Department of State and the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) of the Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The ITAR generally restricts the export of hardware, software, technical data, and services that have defense or strategic applications. The EAR similarly regulates the export of hardware, software, and technology that has commercial or “dual-use” applications (i.e., for both military and commercial applications) or that have less sensitive military or space-related applications that are not subject to the ITAR. The regulations exist to advance the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.
The U.S. government agencies responsible for administering the ITAR and the EAR have significant discretion in the interpretation and enforcement of these regulations. The agencies also have significant discretion in approving, denying, or conditioning authorizations to engage in controlled activities. Such decisions are influenced by the U.S. government’s commitments to multilateral export control regimes, particularly the Missile Technology Control Regime concerning the spaceflight business
Many different types of internal controls and measures are required to ensure compliance with such export control rules. In particular, we are required to maintain registration under the ITAR; determine the proper licensing jurisdiction and classification of products, software, and technology; and obtain licenses or other forms of U.S. government authorizations to engage in activities, including the performance by foreign persons, related to and who support our spaceflight business. Under the ITAR and the EAR, we must receive permission to release controlled data to foreign persons or physically ship controlled hardware abroad.
See “Risk Factors — We are subject to stringent U.S. export and import control laws and regulations. Unfavorable changes in these laws and regulations or U.S. government licensing policies, our failure to secure timely U.S. government authorizations under these laws and regulations, or our failure to comply with these laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation.” The inability to secure and maintain other necessary export authorizations could negatively impact our ability to compete successfully or to operate our spaceflight business as planned. For example, if we were unable to obtain or maintain our licenses to export certain spacecraft hardware, we would be effectively prohibited from launching our vehicles from certain non-U.S. locations, which would limit the number of launch providers we could use. In addition, if we were unable to obtain a Department of State Technical Assistance Agreement to export certain launch provider related services, we would experience difficulties or even be unable to perform integration activities necessary to safely export our transfer vehicles to non-U.S. launch sites. In both cases, these restrictions could lead to higher launch costs which may have a material adverse impact on our results of operations. Similarly, if we were unable to secure effective export licensure to authorize the full scope of activity with a foreign partner or supplier, we may need to implement design changes to spacecraft or updates to our supplier chain, which may increase costs or result in delays in vehicle launch schedules.
Failure to comply with export control laws and regulations could expose us to civil or criminal penalties, fines, investigations, more onerous compliance requirements, loss of export privileges, debarment from government contracts, or limitations on our ability to enter into contracts with the U.S. government. In addition, any changes in export control regulations or U.S. government licensing policy, such as that necessary to implement U.S. government commitments to multilateral control regimes, may restrict our operations.
Interagency Review
Approval of the licenses described above may be subject to interagency reviews that allow multiple government agencies — the Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of State, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”), and others — to examine the respective applications from their individual perspectives, including safety, operational, national security, and foreign policy and international obligations implications, as well as review of foreign ownership. As discussed above, the interagency process raised national security concerns relating to foreign ownership and control of Momentus in connection with a recent FAA license application. We will continue to engage with the Department of Defense to understand the steps necessary to achieve the resolution of any remaining U.S. government national security concerns. No assurance can be given that we will obtain the licenses described above in this section for our future missions. Even though Momentus has entered into the NSA, there is no guarantee that the FAA and other U.S. government agencies will grant the necessary authorizations.
National Security Agreement
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In February 2021, Momentus and its co-founder Mikhail Kokorich, with support from Stable Road, submitted a joint notice to CFIUS for review of the historical acquisitions of interests in Momentus by Mr. Kokorich, his wife, and entities that they control in response to concerns of the U.S. Department of Defense (“DoD”) regarding Momentus’ foreign ownership and control. On June 8, 2021, CFIUS’ review of the joint notice relating to historical acquisitions of interests in Momentus by Mr. Kokorich, his wife, and entities that they control concluded when the Company entered into a National Security Agreement with Mr. Kokorich, on behalf of himself and Nortrone Finance S.A. (an entity controlled by Mr. Kokorich), Lev Khasis and Olga Khasis, each in their respective individual capacities and on behalf of Brainyspace LLC (an entity controlled by Olga Khasis), and the U.S. government, represented by the U.S. Departments of Defense and the Treasury (the “NSA”). In accordance with the NSA, on June 8, 2021, Mr. Kokorich, Nortrone Finance S.A, Lev Khasis and his wife Olga Khasis, and Brainyspace LLC, (collectively, the “Momentus Investors”), fully divested all the shares of Momentus securities beneficially owned by them by selling shares back to Momentus. Pursuant to the NSA, a portion of those divestment proceeds were placed in escrow accounts, and may not be released to the divested investors until after completion of audit by a third party auditor of the Momentus Investors compliance with the NSA and the lapse of a 15 day period without an objection from the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies. As a subsequent event, the remaining proceeds were released from escrow to the divested investors, see Note 15 in the accompanying consolidated financial statements. The NSA also requires, among other things, the following:
•Appointment of a Security Director approved by the U.S. government, represented by the U.S. Departments of Defense and the Treasury (the “CFIUS Monitoring Agencies”), to serve as the primary liaison between Momentus’ board of directors and the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies, with the Security Director to have authority to oversee Momentus’ compliance with the NSA, including, among other things, to remove and replace Momentus officers and employees, approve all new Momentus directors, and to review, approve and terminate certain contracts and relationships related to access to technology and protected technical information, and to recommend that a director be removed from our board of directors due to an identified national security concern, as determined by the Security Director in consultation with the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies;
•Appointment of a Security Officer, approved by the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies, to report directly to the Security Director and to have primary responsibility for overseeing day-to-day compliance with the NSA and any compliance plans adopted thereunder, including periodic reporting to the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies;
•Appointment of an independent third-party monitor to monitor compliance with the NSA by the parties to the NSA, perform due diligence on all persons that are granted access to protected technical information, protected systems or protected facilities, and to serve as a point of contact for the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies under a monitoring agreement. The third-party monitor will regularly report directly to the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies;
•Appointment of an independent third-party auditor to regularly audit Momentus’ compliance with the NSA, and establishment of an audit plan under which the third-party monitor will conduct such audits;
•Establishment of certain communications protocols and restrictions to prevent most communications between Momentus personnel and the Momentus Investors; implementation of certain technology controls to prevent access by the Momentus Investors to protected technical information; regular reporting of technical relationships in which Momentus engages; record keeping and communications logging; establishment of a security plan to safeguard protected technical information, protected systems and protected facilities; and training for all Momentus personnel with respect to the security plan and compliance with the NSA;
•Access and inspection rights for the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies; and
•Periodic reporting by Momentus and the Momentus Investors to the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies.
As summarized above and as further set forth in the NSA, Momentus is subject to various requirements under the NSA. Momentus is required to ensure that the Security Director reports any actual or potential violation of the NSA to the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies and the third-party monitor within 24 hours of discovery, and failure to comply with certain requirements under the NSA could subject Momentus to liquidated damages payable to the U.S. government in the amount of $100,000 per day, up to an aggregate amount of $1,000,000 per breach. See “Risk Factors — We are subject to various requirements and restrictions under the NSA we have entered into with the U.S. government, and we are incurring significant costs to comply with those requirements and may be subject to
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significant monetary penalties if we are deemed not to be in compliance with the requirements and restrictions under the NSA.”
Human Capital
People are our most important asset. Since its inception, Momentus has sought to recruit creative, positive persons with a diverse set of business capabilities to play an integral role in building our company. As we move into the next stage of our growth, we are devoting more resources to our human capital and are building the infrastructure necessary to support our workforce and promote communication, respect, and diversity among our team. We have established our Human Resources and Talent Acquisition department and have hired a Vice President to lead that group and direct our initiatives as we are deeply committed to continuing to grow and develop our team. As of December 31, 2021, we had 118 employees consisting of 80 employees in our research and development and manufacturing teams, seven employees in our sales and marketing teams and 31 employees in general and administrative functions. Many of our employees bring significant experience from prior positions working for leading defense primes, satellite manufacturers, other commercial and military aerospace companies, and government agencies.
Facilities
During 2021, we leased an approximately 65,000-square-foot facility in San Jose, California, which serves as our new headquarters, propulsion laboratory, and Vigoride assembly and test center. This space will allow us to quickly ramp up production volumes for Vigoride vehicles, increase available laboratory space, and accelerate thruster and other developments. We also maintain approximately 13,000 square feet of administrative, research, manufacturing, and testing facilities at our campus in Santa Clara. The campus includes a total of three office suites, two of which consist of solely offices for administrative responsibilities, research and development, and another that consists of both offices and machinery for manufacturing and testing. These facilities are pursuant to agreements through which we lease under multi-year contracts. Leases on two suites were scheduled to terminate at the end of 2021 but have been extended into 2022 as we continue to move operations to our San Jose facility, and the third is scheduled to terminate in November 2022. We plan to launch our orbital vehicles in partnership with various rocket providers, including SpaceX and Relativity Space, among others. Our rocket launch partners will provide the necessary land, facility, and machinery to successfully complete the launches.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Investing in our securities involves risks. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes, before deciding whether to purchase any of our securities. Our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects could also be harmed by risks and uncertainties that are not presently known to us or that we currently believe are not material. If any of these risks actually occur, our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. Unless otherwise indicated, references in these risk factors to our business being harmed will include harm to our business, reputation, brand, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. In such event, the market price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
Unless the context otherwise requires, all references in this subsection to the “Company,” “we,” “us” or “our” refer to Momentus and its subsidiaries.
Risks Related to the Business and Industry of Momentus
We have not yet delivered customer satellites into orbit using any of our transfer and service vehicles, and any setbacks we may experience during our initial mission and other demonstration and commercial missions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation and could harm our reputation.
The success of our in-space infrastructure services business will depend on our ability to successfully and regularly deliver customer satellites to custom orbits. Our initial mission planned will be a hybrid commercial-demonstration mission in which our vehicles will deliver paying customers’ satellites into orbit for the first time. In this inaugural mission, we expect to demonstrate Vigoride’s ability to deploy satellites at the point at which Vigoride is dropped off by the launch vehicle. Once all client payloads have been released, we plan to perform orbit change maneuvers and technology demonstrations with our vehicles that are part of our program to validate our technology in space, and to demonstrate end-to-end in-space transfer operations.
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This inaugural Vigoride flight is expected to provide essential on-orbit functional proof of principle and performance verification data for the microwave electrothermal thruster (“MET”) — this data will be used to assess the efficacy of the MET, and identify potential refinements or upgrades for future versions of the MET in order to improve its performance. Like the ground test campaign we have been conducting, on-orbit tests can be understood as incremental confidence-building measures — meeting key requirements for thrust, specific impulse, firing duration, lifetime, and other performance parameters will help Momentus determine whether the MET is performing per our expectations. Doing so repeatedly, both on the ground and on orbit, will demonstrate the soundness and robustness of the design and is expected to contribute to growing customer confidence over time. We expect to learn lessons from the first flight of Vigoride and to use the data collected from this mission to determine what services or level of services we will be able to initially provide customers, including the degree to which Vigoride possesses capabilities of providing customers with LEO transfer services. We anticipate that the mission will also lay the groundwork for continual improvements and enhancements that we plan to flight-demonstrate on future missions. We plan to offer LEO transfer services to customers in the future, based in part on the outcome of the inaugural flight and MET demonstration, as well as the results of ongoing ground testing.
The version of our Vigoride vehicle that we intend to fly on our inaugural mission has never been flown in space. In addition, while we have previously flown our first generation MET in space, that mission did not demonstrate the MET’s ability to generate a measured orbit change in space, which is crucial to our ability to maneuver objects in space. Moreover, even if the unit generates thrust, there can be no assurance that other systems and subsystems can be operated in a manner that is sufficiently reliable and efficient to permit full commercialization of the technology.
While the objective of the inaugural mission involving the Vigoride system is to successfully deploy satellites and perform certain maneuvers, we are mindful of the inherent risks involved in the initial use of hardware and complex systems in space given the difficulties of replicating all aspects of the environment and stresses that the system will experience in space during ground-based testing in simulated environments. We expect to learn and gather valuable data during this inaugural mission of Vigoride as we continue to develop and improve the system and our other systems.
There can be no assurance that we will not experience operational or process failures and other problems during our inaugural mission or on any other mission. Any failures, delays or setbacks, particularly on our inaugural mission, could harm our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation.
A key component of our business model is the delivery of satellites using our vehicles from low earth orbit to other orbits. The technology for this maneuver is still in the development stage and has not been validated through actual deployment and testing in space. If we are unable to develop and validate such technology or technology for other planned services, our operating results and business will be materially adversely affected.
While we plan to initially deliver satellites within low earth orbit, the success of our business is in large part dependent on our ability to develop more powerful and efficient propulsion to deliver satellites and other payloads to other orbits and provide other services, such as hosted payload, deorbiting of defunct or obsolete satellites and satellite repositioning. This technology is currently under development, and if we fail to successfully complete the development and validate this technology through actual deployment and testing of such technology in space, or if we experience any delays or setbacks in the development of this technology or encounter difficulties in scaling our delivery or servicing capabilities, we may not be able to fully execute or realize our business model and our financial results and prospects would be materially adversely affected.
Additionally, as part of our business plan, we plan to provide reusable vehicles and offer in orbit services, such as hosted payload, inspection, refueling, life extension, re-positioning, salvage missions, maintenance and repair, and de-orbiting. This will require development of new capabilities for our vehicles, such as the capability to perform proximity maneuvering and berthing. These anticipated capabilities need technologies that are unproven and subject to significant continued design and development efforts, may take longer than anticipated to materialize, if at all, and may never be commercialized in a way that would allow us to generate revenue from the sale of these services and offerings. Relatedly, if such technologies become viable in the future, we may be subject to increased competition, and some competitors may have substantially greater monetary and knowledge resources than we have and expect to have in the future to devote to the development of these technologies.
We may not receive all required governmental licenses and approvals
We currently hold a license grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Commercial Report Sensing Regulatory Affairs (the “NOAA’s CRSRA”) office authorizing our first 10 Vigoride missions. However, we have not received a Special Temporary Authorization (“STA”) license from the FCC, and the FAA denied a payload
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review applications in May 2021 due to interagency concerns related to our foreign ownership and corporate structure. The FAA denial notice, which was received before we entered into the NSA, indicated that Momentus was engaged in addressing the government’s national security concerns and that the FAA could reconsider the application once that process is complete. As discussed elsewhere in this report, we continue to progress toward implementation of the NSA but there can be no assurance that our efforts will satisfy the government's national security concerns in time to obtain licenses or approvals needed for planned missions.
U.S. government agencies other than the agency to which we apply to for a license or approval may review our applications to the FCC, FAA, or other regulatory authorities, including to evaluate the national security implications of an application, which could result in delays. For example, in November 2020, the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Service Sector (the “Committee”) requested to review two of our FCC license applications to determine whether approval posed a risk to the national security or law enforcement interests of the United States. While in that instance, the Committee withdrew its request for review without explanation, it is possible that reviews of applications for licenses or approvals by the Committee or other regulatory bodies may occur in the future. Such reviews could delay the issuance of, or result in a denial of, licenses or approvals.
No assurance can be given that we will obtain FAA or FCC authorizations or other authorizations that may be necessary to our business in a timely manner, especially in light of the ongoing U.S. government oversight of Momentus discussed under “Business — Regulatory — National Security Agreement” in this prospectus. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the FCC, FAA and other U.S. government agencies will grant the necessary authorizations to operate our spaceflight business as planned, despite our progress toward implementation of the NSA. If we do not receive these approvals in a timely manner, our financial condition, results of operations, backlog and prospects will be materially adversely affected. For example, we have experienced erosion in our backlog of $86 million as of March 4, 2021 to $67 million as of January 31, 2022 as customers chose to cancel their contracts with us and seek alternative providers due to delays in our scheduled missions as we await receipt of necessary governmental approvals. If we continue to experience delays in receiving these approvals, we could experience further erosion in our backlog.
We have incurred significant losses since inception, we expect to incur losses in the future and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability.
We have incurred significant losses since inception. We incurred operating losses of $99.8 million and $34.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. We have not yet commenced delivery of customer satellites into orbit or fully tested and validated our technology, and it is difficult for us to predict our future operating results. As a result, our losses may be larger than anticipated, and we may not achieve profitability when expected, or at all, and even if we do, we may not be able to maintain or increase profitability.
We expect our operating expenses to increase over the next several years as we scale our operations, increase selling, general and administrative and research and development efforts relating to building corporate infrastructure to support the NSA agreement, being a public company, new service offerings and technologies, and hire more employees. These efforts may be more costly than we expect and may not result in increased revenue or growth in our business. Any failure to increase our revenue sufficiently to keep pace with our investments and other expenses could prevent us from achieving or maintaining profitability or positive cash flow. Furthermore, if our future growth and operating performance fail to meet investor or analyst expectations, or if we have future negative cash flow or losses resulting from expanding our operations, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are dependent on the successful development of our satellite vehicles and related technology.
Our current primary research and development objectives focus on the development of our existing and future vehicles and related technology. If we do not complete development of these vehicles in our anticipated timeframes or at all, our ability to grow our business will be adversely affected. The successful development of our vehicles and related technology involves many uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control, including, but not limited to:
•timing in finalizing vehicle design and specifications;
•successful completion of test programs and demonstration missions;
•whether we will receive and the timing of receipt of licenses and government approvals that will allow us to fly our vehicles in space and gather valuable data that will assist in further development of our vehicles;
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•meeting stated technological objectives and goals for the design on time, on budget and within target cost objectives;
•our ability to obtain additional applicable approvals, licenses or certifications from regulatory agencies and maintaining current approvals, licenses or certifications;
•our ability to secure slots on our launch providers’ manifests;
•performance of our manufacturing facility despite risks that disrupt productions, such as natural disasters;
•performance of a limited number of suppliers for certain raw materials and supplied components and their willingness to do business with us;
•performance of our third-party contractors that support our research and development activities;
•our ability to protect our intellectual property critical to the design and function of our transport vehicles;
•our ability to continue funding and maintaining our research and development activities; and
•the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on us, our customers, suppliers and distributors, and the global economy; and
•our ability to comply with the terms of the NSA and any related compliance measures instituted by the Security Director.
We may not be successful in developing new technology, and the technology we are successful in developing may not meet the needs of our customers or potential new customers.
The markets in which we operate are characterized by changing technology and evolving industry standards, and we may not be successful in identifying, developing and marketing products and services that respond to rapid technological change, evolving technical standards and systems developed by others. Our competitors may develop technology that better meets the needs of our customers. If we do not continue to develop, manufacture, and market innovative technologies or applications that meet customers’ requirements, sales may suffer and our business may not continue to grow in line with historical rates or at all. If we are unable to achieve sustained growth, we may be unable to execute our business strategy, expand our business, or fund other liquidity needs, and our business prospects, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
We operate in highly competitive industries and in various jurisdictions across the world which may cause us to have to reduce our prices.
We operate in highly competitive industries and many of our competitors are larger and have substantially greater resources than we have.
We may also face competition in the future from emerging low-cost competitors. Competition in the rocket launch, satellite and satellite component businesses is highly diverse, and while our competitors offer different products and services, there is often competition for contracts.
In addition, some of our foreign competitors currently benefit from, and others may benefit in the future from, protective measures by their home countries where governments are providing financial support, including significant investments in the development of new technologies. Government support of this nature greatly reduces the commercial risks associated with rocket launch, satellite and satellite component development activities for these competitors. This market environment may result in increased pressures on our pricing and other competitive factors.
The expansion of our operations subjects us to additional risks that can adversely affect our operating results.
We contemplate further expansion of our operations as part of our growth strategy. Our current and contemplated operations subject us to a variety of risks, including:
•recruiting and retaining talented and capable management and employees;
•competition from other companies with significant market share in those markets and with better understanding of demand;
•difficulties in enforcing contracts, collecting accounts receivables, and longer payment cycles;
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•regulatory, political or contractual limitations on our ability to operate in certain foreign markets, including trade barriers such as export requirements, tariffs, taxes and other restrictions and expenses;
•compliance with anti-bribery laws, including without limitation the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the “FCPA”);
•varying security laws and regulations in other countries;
•increased management, travel, infrastructure and legal compliance costs associated with having multiple operations;
•differing regulatory and legal requirements and possible enactment of additional regulations or restrictions on the use, import or export of our products and services, which could delay or prevent the sale or use of our products and services in some jurisdictions;
•currency translation and transaction risk, which may negatively affect our revenue, cost of net revenue, and gross margins, and could result in exchange losses;
•heightened exposure to political instability, war and terrorism;
•weaker protection of intellectual property rights in some countries; and
•overlapping of different tax regimes.
Momentus’ limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate its future prospects and the risks and challenges it may encounter.
We have been focused on developing space transportation and infrastructure services since 2017. This limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate Momentus’ future prospects and the risks and challenges we may encounter. Risks and challenges Momentus has faced or expects to face include our ability to:
•forecast revenue and budget for and manage expenses;
•attract new customers and retain existing customers;
•effectively manage growth and business operations, including planning for and managing capital expenditures for current and future vehicles and services, and managing the supply chain and supplier relationships related to current and future vehicles and services;
•comply with existing and new or modified laws and regulations applicable to our business, including export control regulations;
•anticipate and respond to macroeconomic changes and changes in the markets in which we operate;
•maintain and enhance the value of our reputation and brand;
•develop and protect intellectual property; and
•hire, integrate and retain talented people at all levels of our organization.
If Momentus fails to address the risks and difficulties that we face, including those associated with the challenges listed above as well as those described elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Further, because Momentus has limited historical financial data and operates in a rapidly evolving market, any predictions about our future revenue and expenses may not be as accurate as they would be if we had a longer operating history or operated in a more developed market. Momentus has encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies with limited operating histories in rapidly changing industries. If Momentus’ assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan and operate our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our results of operations could differ materially from our expectations and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
The market for in-space infrastructure services has not been established with precision, is still emerging and may not achieve the growth potential we expect.
The markets for in-space infrastructure services have not been established with precision as the commercialization of space is a relatively new development and is rapidly evolving. Our estimates for the total addressable markets for in-
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space infrastructure services are based on a number of internal and third-party estimates, including our current backlog, assumed prices at which we can offer services, assumed frequency of service, our ability to leverage our current manufacturing and operational processes and general market conditions. While we believe our assumptions and the data underlying our estimates are reasonable, these assumptions and estimates may not be correct and the conditions supporting our assumptions or estimates may change at any time, thereby reducing the predictive accuracy of these underlying factors. As a result, our estimates of the annual total addressable markets for in-space infrastructure services, as well as the expected growth rate for the total addressable market for that experience, may prove to be incorrect.
We may not be able to convert our orders in backlog into revenue.
As of January 31, 2022, our backlog consisted of approximately $67 million in customer contracts, including options for future services. However, these contracts are cancellable by customers for convenience. If a customer cancels a contract before it is required to pay the last deposit prior to launch, we may not receive all potential revenue from these orders, except for an initial non-refundable deposit which is paid at the time the contract is signed. In certain situations, Momentus may decide to refund customers for their deposits, even though it is not contractually required, to maintain goodwill with customers.
In addition, backlog is typically subject to large variations from quarter to quarter and comparisons of backlog from period to period are not necessarily indicative of future revenues. Furthermore, some contracts comprising the backlog are for services scheduled many years in the future, and the economic viability of customers with whom we have contracted is not guaranteed over time. As a result, the contracts comprising our backlog may not result in actual revenue in any particular period, or at all, and the actual revenue from such contracts may differ from our backlog estimates. The timing of receipt of revenues, if any, on projects included in the backlog could change because many factors affect the scheduling of missions and adjustments to contracts may also occur. The failure to realize some portion of our backlog could adversely affect our revenues and gross margins. Furthermore, the presentation of our financial results requires us to make estimates and assumptions that may affect revenue recognition. In some instances, we could reasonably use different estimates and assumptions, and changes in estimates are likely to occur from period to period. Accordingly, actual results could differ significantly from our estimates.
In addition, if we do not receive regulatory approvals in a timely manner, our backlog and prospects will be materially adversely affected. For example, we have experienced erosion in our backlog of $86 million as of March 4, 2021 to $67 million as of January 31, 2022 as customers chose to cancel their contracts with us and seek alternative providers due to delays in our scheduled missions as we await receipt of necessary governmental approvals. If we continue to experience delays in receiving these approvals, we could experience further erosion in our backlog.
Our future revenue and operating results are dependent on our ability to generate a sustainable order rate for our products and services and develop new technologies to meet the needs of our customers or potential new customers.
Our financial performance is dependent on our ability to generate a sustainable order rate for our services. This can be challenging and may fluctuate on an annual basis as the number of contracts awarded varies. If we are unable to win new awards or execute existing contracts as expected, our business, results of operations, and financial position could be further adversely affected.
The cyclical nature of the space industry could negatively impact our ability to accurately forecast customer demand. We may not be able to maintain adequate gross margins or profits in these markets. Our growth is dependent on the growth in the sales of services provided by our customers, our customers’ ability to anticipate market trends, and our ability to anticipate changes in the businesses of our customers and to successfully identify and enter new markets. If we fail to anticipate such changes in demand, our business, results of operations, and financial position could be adversely affected.
We have previously experienced, and may experience in the future, delays or other complications in the design, manufacture and commercialization of new rocket launch services, mission services, satellites, satellite components and related technology. If we fail to develop and successfully commercialize new technologies, if we fail to develop such technologies before our competitors, or if such technologies fail to perform as expected, or are inferior to those of our competitors, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely impacted.
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We are dependent on third-party launch vehicles to launch our vehicles and customer payloads into space and any delay could have a material adverse impact to our financial condition and results of operations.
Currently there are only a handful of companies who offer launch services, and if this sector of the space industry does not grow or there is consolidation among these companies, we may not be able to secure space on a launch vehicle or such space may be more costly.
Our vehicles are expected to provide “last-mile” transport for satellites to their custom orbit after they are released at a drop off point in space. Therefore, we are dependent on third-party launch vehicles to deliver our vehicles into space. If the number of companies offering launch services or the number of launches does not grow in the future or there is a consolidation among companies who offer these services, this could result in a shortage of space on these launch vehicles, which may cause delays in our ability to meet our customers’ needs. Additionally, a shortage of space available on launch vehicles may cause prices to increase or cause delays in our ability to meet our customers’ needs. Either of these situations could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.
Further, in the event that a launch is delayed by third-party launch providers or for other reasons, our timing for revenue recognition may be impacted depending on the length of the delay and the nature of the contract with the customers with payloads on such delayed flight. For example, SpaceX delayed the December 2020 launch of Transporter-1, a Falcon 9 launch, on which our inaugural vehicle was intended to fly. Then, on May 10, 2021 and before we entered into the NSA, Momentus received a letter from the FAA denying Momentus’ application for a payload review for the planned June 2021 launch based on the FAA’s finding that its launch would jeopardize U.S. national security. While Momentus has signed a Launch Services Agreement with SpaceX to reserve space for our vehicles to be launched in June 2022, such a flight is dependent on Momentus successfully completing a payload review by the FAA.
We may be unable to manage our future growth effectively, which could make it difficult to execute our business strategy.
If our operations continue to grow as planned, of which there can be no assurance, we will need to expand our sales and marketing, research and development, customer and commercial strategy, products and services, supply, and manufacturing functions. We will also need to continue to leverage our manufacturing and operational systems and processes, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to scale the business and the manufacture of vehicles as currently planned or within the planned timeframe. The continued expansion of our business may also require additional manufacturing and operational facilities, as well as space for administrative support. For example, we recently leased an approximately 65,000-square-foot facility that can accommodate the manufacture and assembly of our next generation Vigoride vehicles.
During 2021, Momentus investigated options for leasing and outfitting a second manufacturing facility, to be located either in California or in another state in the U.S. We had deemed such a facility essential for the assembly, integration, and testing of both developmental and production versions of our planned Ardoride orbital transfer and service vehicle, due to its projected size. Our current facilities in Santa Clara and San Jose can support Vigoride builds, but are not large enough to conduct these activities for Ardoride. However, due to the delay of the closing of the Business Combination, we concluded that the cost of leasing and modifying a new facility to support Ardoride was not advisable until the completion of the Business Combination. Our intent is to reconsider the development of a larger facility in 2022.
Our continued growth could increase the strain on our resources, and we could experience operating difficulties, including difficulties in hiring and training employees, finding manufacturing capacity to produce our vehicles and related equipment, and delays in production. These difficulties divert the attention of management and key employees and impact financial and operational results. If we are unable to drive commensurate growth, these costs, which include lease commitments, headcount and capital assets, could result in decreased margins and operating results, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.
Our continued growth could increase the strain on our resources, and we could experience operating difficulties, including difficulties in hiring and training employees, finding manufacturing capacity to produce our vehicles and related equipment, and delays in production. These difficulties divert the attention of management and key employees and impact financial and operational results. If we are unable to drive commensurate growth, these costs, which include lease commitments, headcount and capital assets, could result in decreased margins and operating results, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.
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Our expansion has placed, and our expected future growth will continue to place, a significant strain on our management, sales and marketing, administrative, financial, research and development, and other resources. If we fail to manage our anticipated growth, such failure could negatively affect our reputation and harm our ability to attract new customers and to grow our business.
To manage growth in our operations, we will need to continue to grow and improve our operational, financial and management controls and our reporting systems and procedures. We also expect our operating expenses to increase in future periods, and if our revenue growth does not increase to offset these anticipated increases in our operating expenses, our business, results of operations, and financial condition will be harmed, and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability.If we are unable to accomplish any of the following tasks, our revenue growth will be harmed:
•scale our revenue and achieve the operating efficiencies necessary to achieve and maintain profitability;
•anticipate and respond to changing customer preferences;
•anticipate and respond to macroeconomic changes generally, including changes in the markets for rocket launch services, mission services, satellites and satellite components;
•improve and expand our operations and information systems;
•successfully compete against established companies and new market entrants;
•manage and improve our business processes in response to changing business needs;
•effectively scale our operations while maintaining high customer satisfaction;
•hire and retain talented employees at all levels of our business;
•avoid or manage interruptions in our business from information technology downtime, cybersecurity breaches and other factors affecting our physical and digital infrastructure;
•adapt to changing conditions in our industry and related to the COVID-19 pandemic and measures implemented to contain its spread; and
•comply with regulations applicable to our business.
A pandemic outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has disrupted and may continue to adversely affect our business.
The global spread of COVID-19 has disrupted certain aspects of our operations and may continue to adversely impact our business operations and financial results, including our ability to execute on our business strategy and goals. Specifically, the continued spread of COVID-19 and new strains of the virus and precautionary actions taken related to COVID-19 have adversely impacted, and are expected to continue to adversely impact, our operations, including causing delays or disruptions in our supply chain and decreasing our operational efficiency in the development of our vehicles. We are taking measures within our facilities to ensure the health and safety of our employees, which include universal facial coverings, rearranging facilities to follow social distancing protocols, conducting active daily temperature checks and undertaking regular and thorough disinfecting of surfaces and tools. However, there can be no assurances that these measures will prevent a future outbreak of COVID-19 within our workforce.
The pandemic has also resulted in, and may continue to result in, significant disruption and volatility of global financial markets. This disruption and volatility may adversely impact our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity and capital resources. Given the rapid and evolving nature of the impact of the virus, responsive measures taken by governmental authorities and the uncertainty about its impact on society and the global economy, we cannot predict the extent to which it will affect our operations, particularly if these impacts persist or worsen over an extended period of time. To the extent COVID-19 adversely affects our business operations, liquidity and financial results, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section.
We may experience a total loss of our vehicle and our customers’ payloads during the launch into space, and any insurance we have may not be adequate to cover our loss.
Although there have been and will continue to be technological advances in spaceflight, it is still an activity with inherent risk. Explosions and other accidents on launch or during the flight have occurred and will likely occur in the
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future. If such incidents should occur, we will likely experience a total loss of our vehicle and our customers’ payloads. The total or partial loss of one or more vehicles or customer payloads could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. For some missions, we can elect to buy launch insurance, which can reduce our monetary losses from the launch failure, but it may not cover all losses associated with launch failure and possible further losses incurred from the inability to test our technology from the result of such failure.
Depending on the circumstances and market conditions, launch insurance may be extremely expensive, and we cannot assure that we will be able to acquire it on favorable terms, or at all. While we are not procuring launch insurance at this time, we are compliant with third party on orbit liability insurance requirements as required by certain countries where certain of our customers domicile.
Our business involves significant risks and uncertainties that may not be covered by insurance.
A significant portion of our business relates to designing, developing and manufacturing advanced space technology products and services. New technologies may be untested or unproven. Failure of some of these products and services could result in extensive property damage. Accordingly, we may incur liabilities that are unique to our products and services.
The amount of insurance coverage that we maintain may not be adequate to cover all claims or liabilities. Existing coverage may be canceled while we remain exposed to the risk and it is not possible to obtain insurance to protect against all operational risks, natural hazards and liabilities.
We have insured against liability to third parties from launch activities as required by law to the extent that insurance was available on acceptable premiums and other terms. The insurance coverage for third- party damages may not be sufficient to cover the liability. Although the U.S. government may pay claims for third-party damages to the extent they exceed our insurance coverage, this depends on a government appropriation and is subject to a statutory limit. In addition, this insurance will not protect us against our own losses, including to our launch support operations, complex and satellites.
The price and availability of insurance fluctuate significantly. Insurance market conditions or factors outside our control, such as failure of launch vehicles and satellites, could cause premiums to be significantly higher than current estimates and could reduce amounts of available coverage. The cost of our insurance has been increasing and may continue to increase. Higher premiums on insurance policies will reduce our operating income by the amount of such increased premiums. If the terms of insurance policies become less favorable than those currently available, there may be limits on the amount of coverage that we can obtain or we may not be able to obtain insurance at all.
In addition, even though we carry business interruption insurance policies, any business interruption losses could exceed the coverage available or be excluded from our insurance policies. Any disruption of our ability to operate our business could result in a material decrease in our revenues or significant additional costs to replace, repair, or insure our assets, which could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations.
Our customers and suppliers face similar threats. Customer or supplier proprietary, classified, or sensitive information stored on our networks is at risk. Assets, intellectual property and products in customer or supplier environments are also inherently at risk. We also have risk where we have access to customer and supplier networks and face risks of breach, disruption, or loss as well.
Satellites are subject to manufacturing and launch delays, damage or destruction during pre-launch operations, launch failures and incorrect orbital placement, the occurrence of which can materially and adversely affect our operations.
Delays in the manufacturing of satellites, launch delays, damage or destruction during pre-launch operations, launch failures or incorrect orbital placement could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. The loss of, or damage to, a satellite due to a launch failure could result in significant delays in anticipated revenue to be generated by that satellite. Any significant delay in the commencement of service of a satellite would delay or potentially permanently reduce the revenue anticipated to be generated by that satellite. In addition, if the loss of a satellite were to occur, we may not be able to accommodate affected customers with our other satellites until a replacement satellite is available, and we may not have on hand, or be able to obtain in a timely manner, the necessary funds to cover the cost of any necessary satellite replacement. Any launch delay, launch failure, underperformance, delay, or perceived delay could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, business prospects and financial condition.
If our spacecraft fail to operate as intended, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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The manufacturing, testing, launching and operation of a spacecraft involves complex processes and technology. Our satellites employ advanced technologies and sensors that are exposed to severe environmental stresses that have and could affect the performance of satellites. Hardware component problems and software issues could lead to deterioration in performance or loss of functionality of a spacecraft. In addition, human operators may execute improper commands that may negatively impact a spacecraft performance. Exposure of our spacecraft to an unanticipated catastrophic event, such as collision with space debris, could reduce the performance of, or completely destroy, the affected spacecraft.
During any period of time in which a spacecraft is not operational, we may lose most or all of the revenue that otherwise would have been derived from it. Our inability to repair or replace a defective type of spacecraft, or correct any other technical problem in a timely manner could result in a significant loss of revenue. If a spacecraft experiences a significant anomaly such that its type is no longer operational, it would significantly impact our business, prospects and profitability. Additionally, any satellite failures could damage our reputation and ability to obtain future customers for our launch services, prevent us from receiving any payments contingent on a successful launch and increase our insurance rates, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and prospects.
We cannot provide assurances that our satellites will continue to operate successfully in space throughout their expected operational lives. Even if a satellite is operated properly, technical flaws in that satellite’s sensors or other technical deficiencies or anomalies could significantly hinder its performance.
We may experience other problems with our satellites that may reduce their performance. During any period of time in which a satellite is not fully operational, we may lose most or all of the revenue that otherwise would have been derived from that satellite. Our inability to repair or replace a defective satellite or correct any other technical problem in a timely manner could result in a significant loss of revenue. If a satellite experiences a significant anomaly such that it becomes impaired or is no longer functional, it would significantly impact our business, prospects and profitability.
Space is a harsh and unpredictable environment where our products and service offerings are exposed to a wide and unique range of environmental risks, including, among others, coronal mass ejections, solar flares and other extreme space weather events and potential collision with space debris or another spacecraft, which could adversely affect our launch vehicle and spacecraft performance.
Space weather, including coronal mass ejections and solar flares have the potential to impact the performance and controllability of launch vehicles and spacecraft on orbit, including completely disabling our launch vehicles or spacecraft on orbit. Although we have some ability to actively maneuver our satellites to avoid potential collisions with space debris or other spacecraft, this ability is limited by, among other factors, uncertainties and inaccuracies in the projected orbit location of and predicted conjunctions with debris objects tracked and cataloged by the U.S. government. Additionally, some space debris is too small to be tracked and therefore its orbital location is completely unknown; nevertheless, this debris is still large enough to potentially cause severe damage or a failure of our launch vehicles or satellites should a collision occur.
Increased congestion from the proliferation of low Earth orbit constellations could materially increase the risks of potential collision with space debris or another spacecraft and limit or impair our launch flexibility and/or access to our own orbital slots.
Recent years have seen increases in the number of satellites deployed to low earth orbits, and publicly announced plans call for many thousands of additional satellite deployments over the next decade. The proliferation of these low Earth orbit constellations could materially increase the risks of potential collision with space debris or another spacecraft and affect our ability to effectively access sufficient orbital slots to support the expected growth across our business.
Our revenue, results of operations and reputation may be negatively impacted if our products contain defects or fail to operate in the expected manner.
We sell complex and technologically advanced products and services, including rocket launch services, mission services, satellites and satellite components. Sophisticated software used in our products and services, including software developed by us, may contain defects that can unexpectedly interfere with the software’s intended operation. Defects may also occur in components and products that we manufacture or purchase from third parties. Most of the launch vehicles, satellites and satellite components we have developed must function under demanding and unpredictable operating conditions and in harsh and potentially destructive environments. Our products and services may not be successfully implemented, pass required acceptance criteria, or operate or give the desired output, or we may not be able to detect and fix all defects in the launch vehicles, satellites, satellite components and
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systems we sell and/or use. Failure to do so could result in lost revenue and damage to our reputation and may adversely affect our ability to win new contract awards.
Our revenue, results of operations and reputation may be negatively impacted if our satellites fail to meet contractual requirements or our products contain defects or fail to operate in the expected manner.
We employ sophisticated design and testing processes and practices, which include a range of stringent factory and on-site acceptance tests with criteria and requirements that are jointly developed with customers. Our systems may not be successfully implemented, pass required acceptance criteria, or operate or give the desired output, or we may not be able to detect and fix all defects in the satellites, products, hardware and software we sell or resolve any delays or availability issues in the launch services we procure. Failure to do so could result in increased costs, lost revenue and damage to our reputation and may adversely affect our ability to win new contract awards.
We may require substantial additional funding to finance our operations, but adequate additional financing may not be available when we need it, on acceptable terms or at all.
We paid an aggregate of $40 million to our co-founders or their affiliates for the Momentus securities we repurchased from them pursuant to repurchase agreements we entered into as required by the NSA. These amounts came from proceeds of the issuance and sale of 11,000,000 shares of Class A common stock to the PIPE Investors, together with warrants to purchase 11,000,000 shares of Class A common stock, in a private placement that closed immediately prior to the Closing of the Business Combination (the “PIPE Investment”) and the holding bank account established in connection with SRAC’s initial public offering (the “Trust Account”) that were released to us upon the closing of the Business Combination and therefore reduced the proceeds from the PIPE Investment and the Trust Account that are available to us to fund our operations and capital expenditures. In addition, we incurred significant professional and other expenses in connection with the Business Combination. Accordingly, we may need to raise capital through public or private financing or other arrangements sooner than expected. Such financing may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all, and our failure to raise capital when needed could harm our business. For example, the global COVID-19 pandemic and related financial impact has resulted in, and may in the future result in, significant disruption and volatility of global financial markets that could adversely impact our ability to access capital. We may sell equity securities or debt securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner as we may determine from time to time. If we sell any such securities in subsequent transactions, our current investors may be materially diluted. Any debt financing, if available, may involve restrictive covenants and could reduce our operational flexibility or profitability. If we cannot raise funds on acceptable terms, or at all, we may not be able to grow our business or respond to competitive pressures.
Fluctuations in foreign exchange rates or future hedging activities could in the future have a negative impact on our business.
We are exposed to foreign exchange risk as certain of our expenses and liabilities are required to be paid in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. We generally maintain our cash and cash equivalents in U.S. dollars or investments denominated in U.S. dollars. Fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, which can be unpredictable, could result in disproportion increases in our expenses and future liabilities as compared to our revenue and current assets. We do not currently, but may in the future, use hedging strategies or seek to maintain a greater portion of our cash and cash equivalents in foreign currencies or investments denominated in foreign currencies to manage and minimize the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on our consolidated financial statements. If we decide to hedge our foreign currency exchange rate exposure, we may not be able to hedge effectively due to lack of experience, unreasonable costs, or illiquid markets.
Our secured loan facility contains various covenants that limit our management’s discretion in the operation of our business.
Our secured loan facility restricts our ability to, among other things:
•incur additional indebtedness or guarantee indebtedness;
•pay dividends or make other distributions or repurchase or redeem our capital stock;
•undergo fundamental changes, including a change of control;
•make loans and investments;
•prepay any indebtedness (other than loans under the loan facility);
•enter into transactions with related persons;
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•sell assets;
•incur liens; and
•acquire or create any subsidiary.
In each case, subject to certain exceptions. Any failure to comply with the restrictions of our secured loan facility or any other subsequent financing agreements may result in an event of default. An event of default under the secured loan facility will allow the lender to accelerate amounts outstanding under the facility. In addition, the lender may terminate any commitments it had made to supply us with further funds. Furthermore, if we were unable to repay the amounts due and payable under the facility, the lender could proceed against the collateral securing such indebtedness, which includes all of our assets, including all of our intellectual property. As of March 31, 2021, we had fully borrowed the $25 million available under the facility. This loan comes due on March 1, 2022, however, as a subsequent event, Momentus exercised its option to amortize the repayment of the loan over 24 months. See Note 15 in the consolidated financial statements within this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
We rely on a limited number of suppliers for certain raw materials and supplied components. We may not be able to obtain sufficient raw materials or supplied components to meet our manufacturing and operating needs, or obtain such materials on favorable terms or at all, which could impair our ability to fulfill our orders in a timely manner or increase our costs of production.
Our ability to produce our current and future vehicle systems and other components of operation is dependent upon sufficient availability of raw materials and supplied components, which we secure from a limited number of suppliers.
Our reliance on suppliers to secure these raw materials and supplied components exposes us to volatility in the prices and availability of these materials. We may not be able to obtain sufficient supplies of raw materials or supplied components on favorable terms or at all, which could result in delays in the manufacture of our vehicles or increased costs.
In addition, we have in the past experienced and may in the future experience delays in manufacturing or operation as we go through the requalification process with any replacement third-party supplier, as well as the limitations imposed by the ITAR, the EAR, or other restrictions on transfer of sensitive technologies and limitations which may be imposed by our Security Director and/or pursuant to the NSA. Moreover, the imposition of tariffs on such raw materials or supplied components could have a material adverse effect on our operations. Prolonged disruptions in the supply of any of our key raw materials or components, difficulty qualifying new sources of supply, implementing use of replacement materials or new sources of supply or any volatility in prices could have a material adverse effect on our ability to operate in a cost-efficient, timely manner and could cause us to experience cancellations or delays of scheduled missions, customer cancellations or reductions in our prices and margins, any of which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our vehicles and related equipment may have shorter useful lives than we anticipate.
Our growth strategy depends in part on developing reusable vehicles that will allow a single vehicle to deliver cargo multiple times to multiple orbits. These reusable vehicles will have a limited useful life, which is driven by the number of payload delivered to custom orbits and the ability to refuel in space. While we intend to design our reusable vehicles for a certain lifespan, which corresponds to a number of cycles, there can be no assurance as to the actual operational life of a vehicle or that the operational life of individual components will be consistent with its design life. A number of factors will impact the useful lives of our vehicles, including, among other things, the quality of their design and construction, the durability of their component parts and availability of any replacement components, and the occurrence of any anomaly or series of anomalies or other risks affecting the vehicles during launch and in orbit. In addition, any improvements in technology may make obsolete our existing vehicles or any component of our vehicles prior to the end of its life. If our vehicles and related equipment have shorter useful lives than we currently anticipate, this may lead to delays in increasing the rate of our commercial payloads, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We expect to face intense competition in satellite transport and related services and other services which we may develop in the space transportation industry.
The space transportation industry is still developing and evolving, but we expect it to be highly competitive. Currently, our primary competitors in delivering small satellites into a specific orbit are small launch vehicle providers such as Rocket Lab. In addition, several other companies are developing small launch vehicles, and several are developing transfer vehicles, such as Spaceflight Industries, MOOG, Astroscale, Astra and D-Orbit.
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Some companies, such as Rocket Lab and Firefly Aerospace, are developing both small launch vehicles and transfer vehicles. Other companies, including Spaceflight Industries and D-Orbit have announced plans to offer in-space transport services with vehicles that would compete more directly with Momentus.
We believe that competitor vehicles that are comparable to our vehicles have started operations in 2021.
Many of our current and potential competitors are larger and may have substantially greater resources than we have or may expect to have in the future. They may also be able to devote greater resources to the development of their current and future technologies or the promotion of their offerings or offer lower prices. Our current and potential competitors may also establish cooperative or strategic relationships among themselves or with third parties that may further enhance their resources and offerings. Further, it is possible that domestic or foreign companies or governments, some with greater experience in the aerospace industry or greater financial resources than we possess, will seek to provide products or services that compete directly or indirectly with ours in the future. Any such foreign competitor, for example, could benefit from subsidies from, or other protective measures by, its home country.
We believe our ability to compete successfully in delivering satellites to custom orbit at significantly reduced cost to customers depends on a number of factors, which may change in the future due to increased competition, our ability to meet our customers’ needs and the frequency and availability of our offerings. If we are unable to compete successfully, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
If we fail to adequately protect our intellectual property rights or our intellectual property applications for registration fail to become issued or registered, our competitive position could be impaired.
Our success depends, in significant part, on our ability to protect our intellectual property rights, including our water-based propulsion technology and certain other methodologies, practices, tools, technologies and technical expertise we utilize in designing, developing, implementing and maintaining applications and processes used in our vehicles and related technologies. To date, we have relied primarily on trade secrets and other intellectual property laws, non-disclosure agreements with our employees, consultants and other relevant persons and other measures to protect our intellectual property and intend to continue to rely on these and other means. We also try to protect our intellectual property by filing patent applications related to our technology, inventions and improvements that are important to the development of our business. The steps we take to protect our intellectual property may be inadequate.
We currently have one issued patent, 10 pending U.S. utility patent applications, one pending European patent application, and four pending Patent Cooperation Treaty (“PCT”) applications. Our pending patent applications may not result in patents being issued, which may have a material adverse effect on our ability to prevent others from commercially exploiting products similar to ours. Momentus cannot be certain that it is the first inventor of the subject matter to which it has filed a particular patent application, or if it is the first party to file such a patent application. If another party has filed a patent application to the same subject matter as Momentus has, Momentus may not be entitled to the protection sought by the patent application. Momentus also cannot be certain whether the claims included in a patent application will ultimately be allowed in the applicable issued patent. As a result, Momentus cannot be certain that the patent applications that it files will issue. Further, the scope of protection of issued patent claims is often difficult to determine.
Patents, if issued, may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented. If our patents are invalidated or found to be unenforceable, we will lose the ability to exclude others from making, using or selling the inventions claimed. Moreover, an issued patent does not guarantee us the right to use the patented technology or commercialize a product using that technology. Third parties may have blocking patents that could be used to prevent us from developing our product. Thus, patents that we may own in the future may not allow us to exploit the rights conferred by our intellectual property protection. Even if issued, they may not be issued with claims sufficiently broad to protect our technologies or may not provide us with a competitive advantage against competitors with similar technologies. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to copy our technology and use information that we regard as proprietary to create technology that competes with ours. Further, the laws of some countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights in some foreign countries may be inadequate. Momentus’ competitors may also design around Momentus’ issued patents, which may adversely affect Momentus’ business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.
In addition, although we enter into nondisclosure and invention assignment agreements with our employees, enter into non-disclosure agreements with consultants and other parties with whom we have strategic relationships and business alliances and enter into intellectual property assignment agreements with our consultants and vendors, no assurance can be given that these agreements will be effective in controlling access to and distribution of our
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technology and proprietary information. Further, these agreements do not prevent our competitors from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our products.
Protecting and defending against intellectual property claims may have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our success depends in part upon successful prosecution, maintenance, enforcement and protection of our owned intellectual property. To protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect these rights. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our trade secrets. Such litigation could be costly, time consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our technology, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources, could disrupt our business, as well as have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. The results of intellectual property litigation are difficult to predict and may require us to stop using certain technologies or offering certain services or may result in significant damage awards or settlement costs. There is no guarantee that any action to defend, maintain or enforce our owned or licensed intellectual property rights will be successful, and an adverse result in any such proceeding could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.
In addition, we may from time to time face allegations that we are infringing, misappropriating, or otherwise violating the intellectual property rights of third parties, including the intellectual property rights of our competitors. We may be unaware of the intellectual property rights that others may claim cover some or all of our technology or services. Irrespective of the validity of any such claims, we could incur significant costs and diversion of resources in defending against them, and there is no guarantee any such defense would be successful, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, liquidity and prospects.
Even if these matters do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor or without significant cash settlements, these matters, and the time and resources necessary to litigate or resolve them, could divert the time and resources of our management team and harm our business, our operating results and our reputation.
We may experience warranty claims for failures, schedule delays or other problems with existing or new products.
Many of the products we develop and manufacture are technologically advanced systems that must function under demanding operating conditions. The sophisticated and rigorous design, manufacturing and testing processes and practices we employ do not entirely prevent the risk that we may not be able to successfully launch or manufacture our products on schedule or that our products may not perform as intended.
When our products fail to perform adequately, some of our contracts require us to forfeit a portion of our expected profit, receive reduced payments, provide a replacement product or service or reduce the price of subsequent sales to the same customer. Performance penalties may also be imposed when we fail to meet delivery schedules or other measures of contract performance. We do not generally insure against potential costs resulting from any required remedial actions or costs or loss of sales due to postponement or cancellation of scheduled operations or product deliveries.
We are subject to various requirements and restrictions under the NSA, and we are incurring significant costs to comply with those requirements and may be subject to significant monetary penalties if we are found not to be in compliance with the requirements and restrictions under the NSA. In addition, restrictions under the NSA could limit our business activities.
Under the NSA, we are required to hire and pay for the costs of a full time Security Officer who reports directly to the Security Director and has and will continue to have primary responsibility for overseeing day-to-day compliance with the NSA and any compliance plans adopted thereunder, including periodic reporting to the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies. The Security Officer must serve as a liaison between Momentus and the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies, provide timely responses to inquiries from the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies, and maintain availability, upon reasonable notice from the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies, for discussions with the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies on matters relating to compliance with the NSA. The Security Officer is required to participate in all emails, phone calls and in-person meetings between Momentus and the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies. The Security Director has substantially greater authority than the Security Officer, but the Security Director is not expected to oversee day-to-day compliance with the NSA and related matters. See “Management After the Business Combination — Corporate Governance — Board Composition” for a description of the Security Director’s authority and responsibilities. We
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are also required to hire and pay for the costs of an independent third-party monitor to monitor compliance with the NSA by the parties to the NSA, as well as an independent third-party auditor to regularly audit our compliance with the NSA. In addition, we are required to establish: (i) a security plan to safeguard protected technical information, systems and facilities; (ii) a board-level Security Committee to oversee the development and implementation of policies and procedures to safeguard protected technical information, systems and facilities and to exercise appropriate oversight and monitoring of Momentus’ operations to ensure that the protective measures contained in the NSA are effectively maintained and implemented; (iii) an audit plan; and (iv) a communications plan. We are also required to provide detailed and frequent reports to the third-party monitor. We will incur substantial costs to implement these and other requirements under the NSA, and we expect that substantial personnel time will need to be devoted to implement and comply with these requirements. In addition, the NSA imposes limitations on our control over certain U.S. facilities, contracts, personnel, vendor selection and operations. These costs, requirements and restrictions may materially and adversely affect our operating results. In addition, we are required to ensure that the Security Director required to be appointed under the NSA reports any actual or potential violation of the NSA to the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies and the third-party monitor within 24 hours of discovery, and if we are found to be in violation of certain requirements in the NSA, we could be subject to liquidated damages in the amount of $100,000 per day, up to an aggregate amount of $1,000,000 per breach.