SPAC Wars: Virgin Galactic Vs. Blacksy, The Battle For Space

The hosts of Benzinga’s “SPACs Attack” held several SPAC Wars battles featuring companies in similar industries that went public or are going public via SPAC.

A battle held June 17 featured Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc SPCE versus BlackSky, a company merging with Osprey Technology Acquisition Corp SFTW. Both companies are considered space stocks.

Virgin Galactic: Morgan Stanley analyst Kristine T. Liwag lowered the price target of Virgin Galactic shares recently but the illustrated revenue was highlighted by co-host Chris Katje.

A ramp up comes for Virgin Galactic as they increase flights per year, the number of spaceships and the number of passengers. The analyst noted that the company could have 13 spaceships, 40 spaceflights per ship annually and 3,100 annual passengers.

Virgin Galactic has reservations from 600 passengers paying $200,000 to $250,000 for a trip to space. The analyst thinks that customers could be charged up to $400,000 when reservations open back up.

“We just saw someone pay $28 million to go up to space with Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin,” Katje said.

Virgin Galactic could offer hypersonic flight in the future and has partnerships with NASA to train pilots and the Italian Air Force, which Katje said could help the company’s future beyond space tourism.

The company’s recent successful flight could lead to the company getting more aggressive on their timeline, Katje argued.

“They may fly Sir Richard Branson up the weekend of July 4 and could get passengers to space sooner than the current timeline from analysts.”

Katje said future catalysts are the announcement of Branson going to space, additional flights and taking passengers to space.

“There is more room for SPCE to run later this year,” he said.

Related Link: SPAC Wars: Desktop Metal Vs. Velo3D, Battle For 3D Printing

BlackSky: Satellite company BlackSky is going public via SPAC and is seeking to lower the cost of imagery for customers.

“BlackSky is a disruptive, vertical integrated business model that removes the barriers to entry to imagery,” co-host Mitch Hoch said.

BlackSky has satellites in orbit and plans to launch more by the end of 2021.

The company can offer a cheaper solution to customers with its difference being manufacturing. Rivals like Maxar Technologies Inc MAXR outsource satellite manufacturing, Hoch said.

“They found a way to bring the cost down,” he added.

BlackSky can bring the cost down by 90% versus competitors and also offers clients the ability to access imagery on demand and build artificial intelligence tools, according to Hoch.

“That’s why I think BlackSky has some competitive advantages,” he said

The Winner: Viewers of “SPACs Attack” picked BlackSky with the majority of the votes. The full episode featuring this battle and several others can be seen here.

Disclosure: Author is long SPCE shares.

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