Scott P. Arroyo 
SAN FRANCISCO – Terran Orbital, the parent company of Tyvak and PredaSAR, announced on October 28 its intention to go public through a merger with a specialist acquisition company (SPAC) in an agreement that includes AE Industrial Partners and Lockheed Martin.
The transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, would list Terran Orbital’s shares on the New York Stock Exchange with an initial valuation of $ 1.58 billion.
Terran Orbital merges with Tailwind Two Acquisition Corp., an SPAC with capital of $ 345 million. Concurrent Private Investment in Public Capital (PIPE) provides an additional $ 50 million. Francisco Partners and Beach Point Capital announced additional financial commitments of $ 75 million.
PIPE participants include AE ​​Industrial Partners, Lockheed Martin, Beach Point Capital, Daniel Staton, and Fuel Venture Capital. Francisco Partners and Lockheed Martin have also entered into debt commitments of $ 125 million subject to certain undisclosed conditions.
Terran Orbital, a veteran of the small satellite industry, manufactures and operates satellites for commercial and government customers including military and intelligence agencies, NASA and the European Space Agency. The company has won contracts to build satellites and provide services for more than 80 missions.
Terran Orbital last month announced an agreement with Space Florida to establish a manufacturing facility on Merritt Island, Florida, large enough to produce more than 1,000 satellites per year.
In addition to fulfilling customer orders, Terran Orbital is setting up its own constellation of small Earth observation satellites to provide customers with rapid access to global images captured day and night using synthetic aperture radar.
“Through our innovative, high-volume manufacturing of small satellites, we will be able to deliver emerging technologies into space faster, more affordably, and with greater reliability than anyone else,” Marc Bell, co- founder and CEO of Terran Orbital who established the company in 2013, said in a statement.
Lockheed Martin Ventures announced a strategic investment in Terran Orbital in 2017.
“We are actively continuing to work with organizations that develop disruptive technologies and leverage alternative business models,” Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space, said in a statement. “Our experience with Tyvak, which is part of Terran Orbital, has helped us expand our core capabilities to enable hybrid network architectures and we look forward to continuing to work together for the benefit of our customers. “
AE Industrial Partners has been well known in the space industry since founding Redwire in 2020, a company that went public through a PSPC merger.
“Small satellites will play a critical role in the future of space infrastructure and exploration, and provide customers with real-time data to make informed and actionable decisions,” said Kirk Konert, partner at AE Industrial Partners, in a press release. “Terran Orbital is entering into business partnerships with BigBear.ai and Redwire to develop and enhance next generation artificial intelligence and space solutions offerings, which is why we are delighted to support the company and support its future growth. “
The space industry has seen a wave of PSPCs in recent months. While not all deals were well received, Bell said he was confident the Terran Orbital SPAC merger would be successful because “we have real revenue, real backlog, real pipeline. and real customers “.
Longtime investors Lockheed Martin and Beachpoint Capital are also sticking with Terran Orbital, which Bell sees as a vote of confidence. “They continue to follow us,†Bell noted.
Between the recently announced deal with Space Florida and SPAC, Terran Orbital “has a lot of momentum,” Bell said.
