Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE:LLAP) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Griffin Boss : Okay. Sure. Then jumping over to tranche 1. So, you’re still expecting deliveries in the fourth quarter. That’s good to see. But just given the switch in propulsion suppliers away from Astra, has that pushed out the number of deliveries that you initially expected to complete in the fourth quarter. So, is that at all contributing to the lower revenue guide pushing more of that tranche revenue into ’24?

Marc Bell: I mean we had a dream originally, just like we do with T-0 to deliver way ahead of schedule and deliver the whole thing by the end of this year. The reality is propulsion has been with Astra has been quite — been a challenge. We do expect to SDA seems according to them, but we’re hedging our bets. Moving forward, music, we used on Tranche 0 that we will have two different providers that are not dependent on Astra. So, Astra deliver is great. If they don’t deliver, we’ll still have all our engines, and it just means a lot of extra engines frontier the next program that we have both deliver.

Griffin Boss : Okay. All right. And then so shifting gears to your enterprise bus, you had the new disclosure last week on the three configurations for that. It was interesting to see the third configuration C for MEO and GEO applications. So just curious if you could give any more color. Are you currently building any MEO or geo buses? Or are you bidding on RFPs for those applications?

Marc Bell: We are bidding on RFPs for lots of MEOs and lots of micro geos. And it is — so that’s what we decided. We are getting a lot of demand for that. We decided to expand the enterprise bus line to do that. That’s why you see three different configurations that are out there because this is what you were asking for. And so, we are trying to focus our NRE on an bus sizes for what customers are demanding today.

Griffin Boss : Okay. Great. And then just last one for me. You talked about the 2,800 satellites valued at $2.7 billion across the whatever it was, 80 opportunities, 40 customers. So that — I mean, just the quick math on that implies sort of around $1 million per satellite, which I mean, I think historically, you guys have talked about maybe — call it $3 million to $5 million per satellite is sort of a sweet spot. So, can you just help us understand sort of the disconnect there?

Marc Bell: I’m sorry. I don’t understand. You have static on your line? Can you repeat that question?

Griffin Boss : Yes, sure. So, you talked about the 2,800 satellites valued at $2.7 billion. So just a quick math on that implies under $1 million per satellite. I think historically, you’ve talked about $3 million to $5 million for satellite. I just wondered if you could give some color on the disconnect.

Marc Bell: It’s all over the place. So, you have some for $1 million, you have some for $10 million. Some for $15 million. It’s really just — you have a very wide — depending on what people are building, things in micro geo or EMEA are much more expensive than things in LEO or delio. So, everybody is going out and looking at different sites, satellites, not all sizes fit all needs, which is why we keep expanding the bus lines.

Operator: Our next question comes from Scott Buck with H.C. Wainwright. Scott, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Scott Buck : Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Marc, just to kind of follow up on your comments regarding the commercial space. Curious what kind of demand you’re seeing from potential commercial partners and whether or not kind of general macro uncertainty has dampened maybe some of that demand in the near term?

Marc Bell: The demand we’ve seen from commercial partners around the world is just astronomical. I mean, it’s far greater than and your [indiscernible]. I was very hyper-focused on the DoD and the IC when I first started, but the demand for commercial far exceeds that. We’re seeing — we don’t see anything slowing down. There’s lots of spectrum out there. People want to utilize the spectrum, everything from Internet of Things to 5G from space to direct to handset to the tons of applications that people are looking at and that are requiring very large, very robust constellations. So, it’s interesting. It’s also interesting to note the size of our — we think 500 kilograms is like the sweet spot right now for buses. We use the thing was a little bit smaller, but we’re seeing people — things are getting bigger and people want bigger, but the dollars we’re willing to spend is more, but there’s more money to make it space and then the wave has been before.

So, we’re seeing a big push into commercial to then the refreshes for LEOMEonGO [ph]. Because remember, when is the recurring revenue business. Everything we build, we’ve got to replace but we’re seeing huge quantities in LEO that people are looking at. It’s very exciting. Let me just add one thing. One thing to point out is as we start building these quantities, the costs start to go down significantly. So, as we stood to replicate these things over and over again, the recurring costs go down dramatically. There is a lot of — with volume comes better pricing across the board for everybody.

Scott Buck : Sure. No, that makes sense. And Marc, are you actively bidding on programs now? Or are you still in kind of the discovery phase or research phase there?