Ropes & Gray Advises First Space Launch Company to Trade on NASDAQ

Astra Space, Inc., the fastest privately-funded U.S. company in history to reach space, and Holicity, Inc., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, completed their transaction to take Astra public on June 30. Ropes & Gray advised Astra in the merger with Holicity.

The transaction forms a publicly traded space company that will trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market starting on July 1 under the new ticker symbol “ASTR” for Astra common stock and “ASTRW” for Astra warrants. Astra raised approximately $500 million in cash proceeds from the transaction to accelerate growth, expand its market and develop its space services platform.

The Ropes & Gray team that advised Astra was led by private equity partner Carl Marcellino (New York), and included private equity associate Jessica Cooney (New York), capital markets partner Paul Tropp (New York), tax partner Elaine Murphy (Boston), IP transactions partner Regina Sam Penti (Boston), employment & benefits partners Renata Ferrari and Loretta Richard (both of Boston) and associate Pascal Mayer (New York).