A close up view of Rocket 3.2's engines shortly after liftoff. Astra / John Kraus
San Francisco-area start-up Astra is going to be the next publicly traded space stock, as well as the first that's dedicated to orbital rocket launches.
Astra announced on CNBC's "Squawk Box " on Monday that it is merging with special purpose acquisition company Holicity to go public in a deal that values the rocket company at a $2.1 billion enterprise value. Astra will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ASTR when the deal closes, which is expected in the second quarter.
"We're seeing hundreds of companies that want to get from anywhere on Earth to anywhere in space on their schedule — not wait years to get a lot of things to one place," Astra CEO Chris Kemp said. "So we're really focused on building a much smaller rocket, produced in much higher volume, launched from a much larger number of locations."
Holicity's SPAC currently trades under the ticker HOL . The deal is expected to provide Astra with up to $500 million in cash proceeds, including $200 million in a PIPE round led by BlackRock.
Shares of the Holicity SPAC jumped more than 75% in premarket trading Tuesday from its previous close of $10.33.