Investing in Space: A launch guide

Earlier this year, Astra set out to launch a mission with its now-discontinued Rocket 3.3 vehicle. With midday trading underway on stock exchanges, Astra’s stock plunged after the rocket triggered an abort shortly after igniting its engines. The launch was halted, and so was the stock.

While that rocket would launch three days later (and suffer a mid-flight failure for a separate reason), that February abort sent Astra’s stock down 13%. The trading activity, whether speculative, opportunistic or otherwise, demonstrates a key risk in attempting complex launches while public markets watch. 

 Space executives have often impressed upon me that investor education about their companies, and the industry as a whole, is crucial. And Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu previously told me that many investors “see this as still a very nascent industry,” with some stakeholders “not necessarily understanding some of the nuances.”

 With that in mind, here’s a brief, casual rundown of some key terms to know along the way:

• Window: The times within which a launch needs to happen to reach its intended destination.
• Stage: The sections of the rocket, typically identified as first or lower, second or upper, and so on.
• Payload: The spacecraft or instrument being delivered to space.
• Terminal count: When the rocket’s onboard computers take control of the countdown, typically in the last few minutes, to automatically make any hold or abort decisions.
• Ignition: Lighting the engines.
• Hold: A pause in the countdown.
• Scrub: Postponing a countdown and no longer attempting to launch at the previously set time.
• Abort: Ending a launch after ignition, whether still on the ground or in flight. (An abort is not a scrub, but can cause a scrub!)
• Anomaly: A problem or unexpected situation, with either the hardware or software of the rocket.