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Terran Orbital Corp., a troubled maker of small satellites recently acquired by its largest shareholder, has moved its headquarters to Irvine from Florida, installed a new leadership team and is moving full speed ahead on making more than 100 spacecraft for the U.S. military’s Space Development Agency (SDA).
“We’re excited to be back out in front of the market,” Chief Executive Peter Krauss told the Business Journal. “It’s definitely a competitive landscape.”
Krauss took over in October after defense giant Lockheed Martin acquired the company in a $450 million deal following a period of turbulence that included the beginnings of a shareholder revolt against Terran’s leadership. Lockheed had already owned almost a third of the company.
Industry website TechCrunch said Lockheed bought Terran “to save it from going under.”
Once Big Dreams for Terran Orbital
Terran Orbital once had big dreams about space, having used its now defunct stock ticker as an acronym from the famous “Star Trek” phrase – live long and prosper (NYSE: LLAP).
After going public in 2022, it soared to a market cap reaching almost $2 billion before it gradually fell back to Earth amid a series of employee departures and squabbles with investors.
Shares declined to below $1 each, and it faced a possible delisting on the New York Stock Exchange.
Krauss had served as Terran Orbital’s chief operations officer before the sale to Lockheed was completed.
He became CEO and president when Lockheed Martin completed its acquisition in October. Terran Orbital co-founder Marc Bell, who previously had served as president and CEO, has retired, the company said.
As part of the new model, the Terran Orbital headquarters was shifted from Boca Raton, Florida, to Irvine as of Jan. 31. Terran Orbital already had most of its operations here.
Krauss emphasizes he is glad to have the “backing and support of Lockheed.”
“We’re flying satellites not only around the Earth but also around the moon,” Krauss says.
Terran Orbital primarily serves the aerospace and defense industries.
Space Development Agency
Since 2020, the SDA has awarded Lockheed Martin satellite contracts for a total of 116 spacecraft, which Terran Orbital is supplying. The contracts are for a total amount of $2.5 billion.
“That’s going to be a big lion’s share of our work over 2025,” Krauss said. “We have a very close relationship with the SDA.”
The SDA is part of the U.S. Space Force.
Terran Orbital in February appointed former Boeing executive Richard Ullman as senior vice president for finance and business operations, while in January Hanwha Phasor alum Michael Young was picked to be senior vice president of business development. Human resources veteran Kathy MacDougall was named human resources vice president of Terran Orbital on March 25.
$5.1M Contract with EU
The European Space Agency announced on March 5 it had picked Terran Orbital’s Italian subsidiary Tyvak for a 4.7-million-euro ($5.1 million) contract for the EU’s Ramses project.
Tyvak is slated to provide the first of two small satellites – called CubeSats – to fly aboard the Ramses deep-space mission scheduled for launch in 2028.
If all goes as foreseen, Ramses will rendezvous with the asteroid Apophis before it passes close to Earth on April 13, 2029.
Krauss is optimistic about Terran Orbital’s prospects in an increasingly crowded sector.
“We’re hiring actively,” says Krauss. The company had more than 30 jobs posted on its website as of March 25, almost all of them in Irvine.
Past Challenges Still Persist
While the company is making progress, there are still signs of the uncertainty that burdened it previously.
The SDA planned to rescind a contract for 10 satellites awarded to Terran subsidiary Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems last summer and reopen the competition, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported in February.
SDA had awarded Tyvak a $254 million contract in August 2024 to build advanced communications satellites for its proliferated constellation in low-Earth orbit.
The reported action does not apply to the spacecraft that Terran Orbital is building for the SDA.
$2.4B Order Runs Into Trouble
In 2023, Terran Orbital announced with great fanfare that it had received a $2.4 billion contract for more than 300 satellites from communications operator Rivada Space Networks. However, that ran into payment problems soon afterward, and the program is currently on hold, according to a company statement.
Also with great fanfare, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in 2021 that Terran Orbital would invest $300 million in Florida to construct the world’s largest, state-of-the-art, commercial spacecraft facility. However, the following year, Terran Orbital announced that it would no longer pursue the development.
“Instead, we chose to expand our existing facilities in California, which could be completed more quickly,” the company told the Business Journal.
Peter Krauss: Racer in a Hurry
Peter Krauss, the president and CEO of Terran Orbital Corp. with a 30-year career in business, is in a hurry professionally and personally.
“Krauss has a passion for racing and performance cars. He spends his weekends on the racetrack, trying to beat his best time – something that spills over into his professional world and inspires him to continue delivering competitive solutions in the tech industry,” according to the company’s website.
His resume includes a little more than three years working as a founder and consultant at PMK Consulting of Las Vegas and a little more than two years as president and CEO of payment card company Arroweye Solutions of Las Vegas.
Krauss also says of Terran Orbital that “we’re happy and fully committed to Orange County.”
“It’s an expensive place to live, but it also happens to be a place where people really want to live,” he said, noting that he maintains two residences and works “full time” out of the firm’s Irvine office.