Redwire focuses on space infrastructure and autonomous systems. The company completed its Edge Autonomy acquisition and reported 50.7% year-over-year revenue growth. Management maintained full-year guidance of $320 to $340 million, and the book-to-bill ratio of 1.25 suggests demand is holding. But the business is bleeding cash with a net loss of $41.2 million in Q3, nearly double the $21 million loss from the prior year. Gross margin sits at just 16.3%, leaving almost no room for error.
Could IT infrastructure, and even the rise of AI, eventually migrate beyond the atmosphere? Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted in October that gigawatt-scale, solar-powered data centers would be a reality within 10 to 20 years. At the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, Elon Musk was even more ambitious: AI data centers in the "final frontier" could be viable within two to three years. Google also plans to deploy its TPU chips in orbit via Project Suncatcher.
Entrants will be required to write three- to five-page white papers that explain their idea and how they would shape markets and strengthen the space economy or national security. Papers are due by June 30, and judging will be complete by August 15. As an additional incentive, the best ideas will be briefed to relevant policymakers, including key members of Congress, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, and Saltzman, of the Space Force.
The company is planning to launch a 1,100-pound satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket in October as part of an audacious proof of concept. The goal is to test water as the fuel for both electrical and chemical propulsion, processes that involve shooting out a stream of plasma with the use of a magnetic field and burning fuel at high temperature and pressure to generate thrust, respectively.