Momentus Inc

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 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 805, Business Combinations ("ASC Topic 805") in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“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 additional 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, 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 220,000 shares of the Company’s Class A common stock at $500.00 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 $575.00 per share. The warrants were recorded as a derivative liability under ASC Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging and the warrant liability was initially valued at $30.5 million. The PIPE Investment was consummated concurrently with the closing of the Business Combination.

Overview

Momentus is a U.S. commercial space company that offers satellites, satellite buses, and other satellite components, transportation and infrastructure services, including hosted payloads and other in-orbit services to help enable the commercialization of space. Satellite operators are our principal customers and target customers. Momentus offers satellites and satellite buses and technology designed to meet the specific needs of government and commercials customers.

Products that we provide or plan to provide include satellites, satellite buses, solar arrays, and other satellite components. Our satellites and satellite technologies offer competitive advantages to customers such as greater payload capability, significant on-orbit power, flexibility of design and ability to accommodate a range of sensors, communications equipment, and other space instruments, low cost, and speed of delivery.

Our Tape Spring Solar Array (“TASSA”) is an innovative solar array that Momentus is developing. It offers the potential to produce power at substantially lower cost than competing arrays. It also has important advantages from its ability to be deployed and retracted to protect the array from in-space collisions with debris and to more easily maneuver the satellite to different locations or adjust its characteristics.

Services that we provide or 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 Service Vehicles (“OSVs”) that we design and manufacture. While we plan to eventually operate a family of progressively larger and more capable OSVs, we are currently focused on the first vehicle of the family, Vigoride, which will primarily operate in low-earth orbit (LEO). We believe that Vigoride, has the ability to deliver fast, versatile, and cost-effective transportation and infrastructure services to our customers. We conducted our inaugural test and demonstration mission with Vigoride in 2022 as well as two additional test and demonstration missions during 2023. The Company plans to use technological milestones like completion of development of Block 2.2 configuration of the Vigoride OSV, MET propulsion, and TASSA in space, and experience gained in both satellite deployment and hosted payloads as standards to build new OSVs and explore commercial opportunities.

Our transportation service offering focuses on delivering our customers’ satellites to precision orbits of their choosing. To accomplish this, we partner with leading launch service providers, such as SpaceX to “ride share” our customer’s satellites from Earth to space on a midsized or large rocket. Customer satellites can also be carried aboard small launch vehicles for dedicated missions. Our OSVs 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 this “hub-and-spoke” model 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 transportation.

Our OSVs will initially be expendable, meaning they will be used to perform services before they de-orbit themselves upon completion of their first mission. However, our goal is to eventually make our OSVs 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 also offering variants of our Vigoride OSV to government and commercial customers as a traditional bus manufacture and satellite prime contractor. Vigoride, and it’s variants, M-500 and M-1000 are being offered to provide payload technology demonstrations as well as forming the space infrastructure backbone for constellations of satellites.

Momentus offers or plans to offer production and operation of small satellites to meet a range of defense, government, and commercial needs such as communications, tracking of missiles, remote sensing, and space domain awareness. There is a growing need for such capabilities for defense, government, and commercial customers. Technologies used to support the Hosted Payload market are directly applicable to offering customer-owned satellites for use in constellations. Momentus is offering high-volume production of busses, based on Vigoride’s technologies, and integrating customer’s unique payloads for a variety of missions ranging from communications to Earth Observation. This market heavily leverages prior investments in satellite technology to access a large and growing market segment. We introduced variants of Vigoride tailored specifically for constellation applications as M-500 and M-1000 in August 2023.

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 or “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 more than one 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 demand for small satellites and satellite busses that Momentus produces. We also anticipate that the space transportation segment will grow 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 and satellite buses transportation to LEO will continue to drive overall demand growth for space transportation services in the short-term as technology advancements continue to 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 satellites, satellites buses, and technologies like solar arrays, 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 Product and Service Offerings

We are developing our OSVs to provide safe, affordable, reliable, and regular in-space services to our customers, including space transportation, payload hosting, and in-orbit servicing. We have designed 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.

We currently plan to offer the following infrastructure services to the space economy:

•Satellites and Constellation Bus: Momentus offers or plans to offer production and operation of small satellites to meet a range of defense, government, and commercial needs such as communications, tracking of missiles, remote sensing, and space domain awareness. There is a growing need for such capabilities for defense, government, and commercial customers. Technologies used to support the Hosted Payload market are directly applicable to offering customer-owned satellites for use in constellations. Momentus is offering high-volume production of busses, based on Vigoride’s technologies, and integrating customer’s unique payloads for a variety of missions ranging from communications to Earth Observation. This market heavily leverages prior investments in satellite technology to access a large and growing market segment. We introduced variants of Vigoride tailored specifically for constellation applications as M-500 and M-1000 in August, 2023.

•Satellite Technologies: Momentus is developing and plans to offer satellite technologies such as our Tape Spring Solar Array and other components used on the Vigoride OSV. These technologies and components have been flown in space and offer important competitive advantages such as low cost and flexibility to meet the needs of a growing market of customers who are owners and operators of satellites.

•Space Transportation: 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 then ship our vehicle, holding the customer payload, to the launch site, where it will be integrated onto the launch vehicle. The launch vehicle then transports our vehicle to the drop-off orbit. After separation from the launch vehicle, our OSV will transport our customers’ payloads to their chosen final orbit.

We believe our transportation service 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. We plan to price our 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: There are a broad range of payloads, satellite components, and other space technologies, which customers want to operate, test, or validate in space. During development of a satellite component or other system, testing and validation of performance are important, particularly in the harsh environment of space. In other cases, customers wish to operate technologies such as solar collection and energy transmission systems in space without the expense of developing a full system that includes the satellite bus hosting these instruments. Momentus hosted payload service allows customers to operate, test, and validate the performance of the technology or system in space at lower cost and less complexity. Momentus service offers the ability to manage the integration and operation of these payloads in space. Additionally, Momentus is able to obtain necessary government licenses and manage the integration of these hosted payloads onto our OSV.

•In-Orbit Servicing: We view in-orbit servicing of satellites as a growing business opportunity. As the number of satellites in space increases, so does their need to be serviced. We plan to develop Momentus’ vehicles to be capable of performing in-orbit servicing and are pursuing development activities that support this objective. Although we are still developing this technology, our aim is to equip future vehicles with robotic arms and an ability to maneuver in close proximity to other spacecraft and grapple, 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.

•Constellation Bus: Technologies used to support the Hosted Payload market are directly applicable to offering customer-owned satellite busses for use in constellations. Momentus is offering high-volume production of low-cost busses, based on Vigoride’s technologies, and integrating customer’s unique payloads for a variety of missions ranging from communications to Earth Observation. This market heavily leverages prior investments in satellite technology to access a large and growing market segment. We introduced variants of Vigoride tailored specifically for constellation applications as M-500 and M-1000 in August, 2023.

Total Addressable Market for Our Services

The Space Foundation sized the broader space economy at $546 billion in Space Report 2023, representing approximately 8% growth from the prior year. According to Morgan Stanley, the space economy could grow to over $1 trillion by 2040. The Space Foundation in Space Report 2023 estimates that global satellite manufacturing revenue was $7.9B in 2022.

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” (OSVs). 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.

Satellites, Satellites Buses, and Other Technologies

Momentus has developed and intends to develop additional offerings of satellites, satellite buses, and key technologies such as solar arrays and components such as avionics. These offerings leverage the research and development work conducted by the Company in recent years on its Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicle and use technologies developed for this vehicle. Momentus has offered and intends to continue to offer satellites to meet the needs of defense, government, and commercial customers.

Momentus utilizes its satellite buses and integrates communications equipment, sensors, and other payloads into the resulting satellite that is offered. The specific equipment carried aboard our satellite buses is tailored to meet the specific requirements of different customers.

There is a large and growing market for satellites and their technologies and components. According to the Space Foundations Space Report 2023, over 2,300 satellites were launched in 2022, a roughly 35% increase over the number of satellites launched in 2021. We estimate this market will create considerable demand for the type of satellites, buses, and other technologies and components that Momentus has developed or plans to develop.

Our Service Vehicles

Our research and development objectives have included the development of our existing and future in-space transfer and service vehicles and related water plasma propulsion technology.

Vigoride is the first vehicle developed by Momentus. We expect Vigoride will be sufficient to meet our initial operating plan of offering in-space transportation services to small satellites in LEO as well as payload-hosting services. The success of our in-space infrastructure services business will depend on our ability to successfully and regularly deliver customer satellites into custom orbits. 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 conducted our inaugural test and demonstration mission with Vigoride during 2022 and began our second test and demonstration mission in January 2023 and the third test and demonstration mission in April 2023.

Our 2022 and 2023 launches were intended to be test and demonstration missions. While we carried a few paying customers on these early missions, the primary goals of our 2022 and 2023 missions were to test Vigoride in space, learn from any issues that we encountered and incorporate lessons learned into future Vigoride vehicles. While we conduct an extensive ground-test campaign to identify potential problems with each of our vehicles prior to launch, we have encountered anomalies with our vehicles and their operation in space, and we may encounter additional issues and anomalies in the future. Depending on the nature of issues and anomalies we may 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 test and demonstration missions or commercial missions. Any failures or setbacks could harm our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operation.

Early Vigoride vehicles will not be reusable, meaning that they will complete their missions following delivery of their payloads, operation of hosted payload, and testing of new technologies. However, later 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.

Beyond commercialization of Vigoride, we envision bringing larger vehicles to market. These vehicles will be similar to our Vigoride vehicle, but with larger structures, and more powerful propulsion systems in order to carry progressively larger payloads to orbits farther from Earth, such as to Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO).

Water Plasma Propulsion Technology Overview

We believe our water plasma propulsion technology offers unique capabilities for our vehicles and services. The technology is 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. The conversion technology takes direct current 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, which is forced through a separate injector. The water is then heated into a plasma state and expelled from the thruster through a nozzle, creating a propulsive force. This propulsion is what would create motion in space.

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 may pose an explosion hazard. Long term, water sourced from the Moon or other near-Earth bodies could be used to extend the range of Momentus’ vehicles servicing transportation needs around the Moon or Mars. Sourcing propellant at the point of use and from low-gravity bodies has logistical advantages over transporting all propellant from the Earth for these longer-range missions.

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.

Inaugural Mission

Vigoride 3 was the first OSV that the Company launched into space. It was built with an upgraded 750-Watt version of the C-band Microwave Electrothermal Thruster (“MET”) compared to Vigoride 1 and Vigoride 2 which were early versions of Vigoride OSV that were fully built and ground tested. The company does not plan to fly either Vigoride 1 or 2, and has incorporated lessons-learned from their development and production into later vehicles.

On May 25, 2022, the Company launched Vigoride 3 to low-earth orbit aboard the SpaceX Transporter-5 mission. In addition to Vigoride 3, Momentus used a second port on the same SpaceX mission to fly a third-party deployer from a partner company. On May 25, 2022, Momentus used the third-party deployer to place its first customer satellite in orbit.

On May 26, 2022, upon establishing two-way contact between Vigoride 3 in low-earth orbit and a ground station on Earth, Momentus discovered that Vigoride 3 had experienced certain anomalies after its launch, primarily relating to its deployable solar arrays, which provide power to the spacecraft and its subsystems. The Company quickly worked to address the anomalies, identify root causes, and pursue solutions to be implemented in advance of future missions.

The Company determined that Vigoride 3’s deployable solar arrays, which are produced by a third party, and are folded and stowed during launch, did not fully deploy as intended once in orbit. This resulted in low power issues with the spacecraft. Meanwhile, the spacecraft's fixed, body-mounted solar panels appeared to have worked as intended and were able to provide some power to the spacecraft. The Company and the producer of the solar arrays identified a mechanical issue as the root cause of the deployable arrays not operating as intended. The Company also identified the root cause of the anomalies that it experienced with other spacecraft systems during the low-power state.

On May 28, 2022, Momentus was able to deploy two customer satellites from Vigoride 3 (of nine total customer satellites onboard Vigoride 3). The Company then continued efforts to deploy other customer satellites. While Momentus initially established two-way communications with Vigoride 3, it was unable to continue such two-way communication given the spacecraft's low-power state which resulted from an issue with a component in the solar arrays provided by a third-party supplier.

While Momentus was unable to re-establish two-way communication with Vigoride 3, it continued to broadcast commands to the spacecraft from ground stations on Earth, including commands to deploy customer satellites. Additionally, Vigoride 3 was equipped with a mechanism designed to autonomously deploy customer satellites in the event of a sustained loss of communications with ground stations. Vigoride 3 deployed five additional customer satellites during July and August 2022 for a total of seven. The Company was unable to deploy the last two customer satellites that Vigoride 3 was carrying. In total, Momentus deployed eight customer satellites in low-earth orbit during its inaugural mission, comprising seven satellites from Vigoride 3 and one satellite from the third-party deployer system.

The Company incorporated improvements identified during its inaugural mission in advance of its first follow-on mission and other planned follow-on missions.

First Follow-On Mission

Vigoride 5 is the lead spacecraft in the Company’s Block 2.2 configuration, which features an upgraded propulsion system, a modular payload bay that allows fuel tanks to be substituted for customer payloads depending on specific mission requirements, upgraded payload-hosting capabilities and a more efficient structural design compared to previous Vigoride vehicles. Vigoride 5 was the second OSV that the Company launched into space.

On January 3, 2023, the Company launched Vigoride 5 to low-earth orbit aboard the SpaceX Transporter-6 mission. As of December 31, 2023, the primary mission objectives were completed. On Vigoride’s first orbital pass,

Momentus confirmed that both solar arrays were deployed, and the vehicle was generating power and charging its batteries. Momentus demonstrated all spacecraft subsystems through the course of the Vigoride 5 primary mission and identified several deficiencies which have been incorporated into the Vigoride 7 build. Vigoride 5 included testing of our MET propulsion system. Two thrusters were flown and fired over 300 times and 6 hours 58 minutes of accumulated firing time. Vigoride 5 also carried one cubesat that was successfully released into orbit, and a complex hosted payload developed by CalTech to demonstrate technologies needed to collect and beam power to the Earth. Momentus also performed an orbit raise during this mission of over 3 km.

Vigoride 6 Mission

Momentus launched its third Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicle to low-Earth orbit aboard the SpaceX Transporter-7 mission on April 14, 2023. During the Vigoride-6 mission Momentus deployed all customer payloads. Momentus successfully deployed the REVELA payload for ARCA Dynamics, the VIREO CubeSat for C3S LLC., the DISCO-1 CubeSat for Aarhus University, and the IRIS-C payload for an Asian customer booked through ISILAUNCH.

During the Vigoride-6 mission, Momentus also deployed two CubeSats into Low-Earth Orbit as part of the NASA LLITED (Low-Latitude Ionosphere/Thermosphere Enhancements in Density) mission. These two CubeSats, housed behind a single deployer door, were released from the Vigoride OSV earlier than scheduled. While the CubeSats were deployed at the intended altitude of 495km, they were deployed at a different inclination than the intended target orbit needed for the science experiment. Momentus conducted a thorough investigation and identified the root cause as human error in the mapping of a software command. The Company implemented corrective actions to prevent a recurrence.

During the Vigoride 6 mission, Momentus conducted a demonstration test of its patented Tape Spring Solar Array (TASSA). This system utilizes flexible solar cell technology, allowing the solar array to be extended and retracted like a tape measure, using its concave shape to provide rigidity.

TASSA is designed to be deployed and retracted on orbit numerous times, to be configurable to varying lengths based on power requirements, and utilizes thin film solar cells that are radiation resistant and self-annealing. During its demonstration test on orbit, Momentus was able to demonstrate a significant majority of the major performance requirements for TASSA, including boom yoke deployment, initial roll out deployment, thin film flexible solar cell power generation, low-cost slip ring performance, and retraction, providing confidence as well as identifying areas for improvement, such as processing the metallic substrate to better maintain its intended shape as Momentus continues development of this technology.

Momentus conducted another mission on the SpaceX Transporter-9 mission launched on November 11, 2023. On this mission, Momentus used a third-party deployer system to deliver payloads into orbit. Momentus supported five payloads for four customers. After launch, the Company confirmed the deployment of the Hello Test 1 and 2 satellites for Hello Space. Momentus was not able to confirm the deployment of the remaining three satellites for three other customers and based on the results of a detailed investigation undertaken, the Company does not believe those satellites were released from the third-party deployer system.

Momentus has launched four missions to date, deployed 17 customer satellites, and provided hosted payload services. The Company has produced its next Orbital Service Vehicle, Vigoride 7, that it intends to utilize on a future mission, sell it as a finished product, or for use as a satellite bus.

Our Relationships with Launch Providers

We have designed 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, RFA and Stoke Space. Beyond these providers, we remain in active dialogue and intend to use other launch providers in the future. 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 which we maintain. We believe the relationship between our companies is recognized as mutually beneficial. Use of SpaceX launches by Momentus in consolidating small satellites and hosted payloads on our transport vehicles is a low cost offering we provide to our customers.

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 leveraging common technologies through modular vehicles: Momentus is applying technologies developed on Vigoride to offer both in-space services and traditional satellite production and bus manufacturing to customers. We believe that this approach will allow us to compete across multiple markets without dramatically increasing our development costs. This approach also allows us to offer bundled services to constellation operators and generate differentiated offerings blending traditional bus capabilities with next-generational service-oriented features and capabilities.

•Unique technology with patents pending: Over the past several years, we have worked on developing our patent-pending water plasma propulsion technology, and we have designed our vehicles and services to incorporate this technology. We have also developed technologies related to space infrastructure system architectures and low-cost solar arrays. We are in the process of creating a patent portfolio and, as of December 31, 2023, we had eight issued patents and applications for six additional patent families relating to our water plasma propulsion and other technologies.

•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 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, Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance (ULA), Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) and several other rocket providers. 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: Many of our management team members have experience in large organizations, including the U.S. Department of Defense, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Maxar, and Northrop Grumman, among others. Our efficient vertical integration allows for significant cooperation and interactivity between teams.

Customer Overview

Our signed customer contracts typically include firm orders as well as options, which allow customers to opt-in to launches on shorter notice without requiring a separate agreement. 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.

Sales and Marketing

We plan to provide new service offerings and use a variety of marketing approaches over time to increase market share and grow the total addressable market for our product and services.

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 satellites and vehicles. When we communicate with our satellites and 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 our initial flight in May 2022 the FCC granted us a Special Temporary Authorization (“STA”), which was modified and extended for five 30-day periods at our request. Following the enactment of a new set of FCC licensing guidelines for small satellites and related systems that applied to Momentus spacecraft, we applied for and in November 2022 were granted an FCC license for the Vigoride 5 mission. We applied for and in February 2023 were granted and FCC license for the Vigoride 6 mission. The FCC continues to pursue additional updated rulemaking that may potentially impact Momentus. The FCC continues to consider 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, we believed these cameras to be subject to the licensing requirements and regulations of the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration's ("NOAA") Commercial Report Sensing Regulatory Affairs (“CRSRA”) office. Until February 2023 we held a license grant from CRSRA authorizing the first ten Vigoride missions. As a consequence of a NOAA interpretation of the licensing regulations and at the suggestion of NOAA we surrendered that license in February. For future missions we will apply for any required NOAA authorizations on a case-by-case basis.

Federal Aviation Administration

As a participant in launch activities, we are indirectly subject to the license requirements of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (the “FAA”) Office of Commercial Space Transportation (the “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 the AST occur during, for example, the processing of a SpaceX launch license. During preparation for the 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, the Company 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. In March 2022, Momentus filed with the FAA an application for a payload review and determination in support of the Vigoride 3 mission. In May 2022, Momentus received from the FAA a favorable payload determination for the Vigoride 3 payload resulting in the first operational mission for a Vigoride OSV.

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 (the “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., 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 U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. 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 2021 FAA license application. We will constantly engage with the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies to understand and address any 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 entered into and implemented the National Security Agreement (NSA) which is described below, there is no guarantee that the FAA and other U.S. government agencies will continue to grant the necessary authorizations.

National Security Agreement

In February 2021, Momentus and its co-founder Mikhail Kokorich, with support from Stable Road, submitted a joint notice to the U.S. Government Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (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 (the “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 the U.S. government, represented by the U.S. Departments of Defense and the Treasury, and 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).

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. Momentus was subjected to various requirements under the NSA to include third-party monitoring and audits; reporting requirements to the CFIUS Monitoring Agencies (CMAs); and establishment of a comprehensive Security Plan.

Momentus made significant strides to implement the NSA in 2023. In March 2023, Momentus paid the final divestiture payment to Mr. Kokorich, Nortrone Trust, and Mr. Khasis (through Brainyspace Trust). Momentus also implemented the remaining aspects of the NSA in 2023. Momentus submitted a request to CFIUS for NSA termination in December 2023, which was subsequently granted, and the Company was notified of this decision by the Department of the Treasury in January 2024. Momentus is no longer subject to the provisions of the NSA which is no longer in force.

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 evolution, we are focused on optimizing the human capital resources we have available and are building the infrastructure necessary to support our workforce and promote communication, respect, and diversity among our team. Our Human Resources and Talent Acquisition department continues to actively recruit new talent. 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

Beginning in 2021, we leased an approximately 65,000-square-foot facility in San Jose, California, which serves as our headquarters, propulsion laboratory, and Vigoride assembly and test center. This space could allow us to ramp up production volumes for Vigoride vehicles, increase available laboratory space, and accelerate developments if required. Three minor leases expired during 2022 as we completed the consolidation of operations to our San Jose facility. Our rocket launch partners will provide the necessary land, facility, and machinery to successfully complete the launches.