Voyager Technologies Q3 2026 results: core business lifts forecast

Voyager Technologies raised the bottom of its 2026 sales forecast by US$10 million on Monday, to $285 million, and left the top at $305 million. This time the increase did not come from Astrobotic, the Pittsburgh builder of lunar landers, rovers and surface power systems that Voyager bought in July.

Astrobotic supplied $31 million of the record $89 million Voyager sold in the three months to Sept. 30, more than double a year earlier. Without it, sales rose about $5 million from the second quarter. To meet the new forecast, the rest of the business needs a big fourth quarter.

All figures are in U.S. dollars, Voyager’s reporting currency.

The August test

In August, SpaceQ reported that Voyager’s previous increase matched almost exactly the $40 million to $50 million Astrobotic was expected to add. Management said then that about 40 per cent of second-half sales would land in the third quarter, which pointed to $75 million to $87 million. Voyager beat the top of that range.

Chief financial officer Phil De Sousa said Astrobotic’s $31 million was “nearly double what we had originally anticipated,” but called it “more of a timing shift.” He still expects $40 million to $50 million from the lunar business over the second half, which leaves about $15 million for the fourth quarter. On the company’s own numbers, then, the $10 million added to the low end comes from the rest of the business.

Orders without Astrobotic

Voyager signed a record $116 million of new contracts in the quarter, a figure it reports as bookings. Chairman and chief executive Dylan Taylor said “nearly all” of it came from the business Voyager owned before the deal. It was the second straight quarter above $100 million.

Voyager won six national-security and defence awards, across five platforms, worth $62 million. None was tied to the Next Generation Interceptor, the U.S. missile-defence program Taylor called “a foundation of our technology heritage.” The technology built for it is now finding buyers on other programs, he said. Voyager also signed a strategic partnership with Anduril during the quarter, building on $60 million of contracts the two already share.

On Monday Voyager named retired Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, the second chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, to chair its Board of Advisors. Taylor said Saltzman brings perspective on “evolving customer requirements and the broader threat environment.”

Backlog, the work under contract but not yet delivered, more than doubled in three months to $742 million. In August De Sousa said it held “absolutely $0” of Astrobotic. It now holds Astrobotic’s $298 million NASA order for two more lunar landings, among other work. Voyager’s documents give two figures for Astrobotic’s share: $347 million in the release and $379 million in the presentation. The gap is roughly what Astrobotic delivered in the quarter. Either way, the rest of the business ended September with more work in hand than it started with.

Losses widen

Voyager’s gross margin, what is left of each sales dollar after the direct cost of the work, rose for a second straight quarter, to 11.5 per cent from 8.5 per cent in the second quarter and a negative 4.4 per cent in the first. It is still below the 15.4 per cent of a year earlier. Management now expects “low double digits” for the year, and mid-teens in the fourth quarter.

Voyager’s net loss attributable to shareholders grew to $55.7 million, from $46.5 million in the second quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, an operating-profit measure that sets aside interest, tax, depreciation and some other costs, was a loss of $45 million, against $37.5 million in the second quarter and $17.7 million a year earlier. Spending on research and development was more than five times its level a year ago.

“I will emphasize that these investments are deliberate,” De Sousa told analysts on the Nov. 3 call. He expects adjusted EBITDA to turn positive by the end of 2027, and free cash flow to “flip positive” in 2028.

During the quarter Voyager sold more convertible notes, debt that can be swapped for shares. It ended September with $554 million in cash against $841 million of those notes, so it owes about $287 million more than it holds, up from about $75 million at the end of June. Counting undrawn credit, it has $816 million to spend.

The shares closed at $23.08 on Wednesday, about 6 per cent below where they stood before the results and less than half their May peak.

MDA Space’s stake

MDA Space has been a partner and equity owner in Starlab, Voyager’s planned commercial space station, since 2024. Taylor named the company alongside Airbus, Mitsubishi and Palantir as he made the case for Starlab in NASA’s Commercial LEO Destinations program, the competition to succeed the International Space Station. NASA issued its final request for proposals in October. Bids are due Dec. 8, and an award is expected in spring 2027.

KeyBanc analyst Michael Leshock asked what sets Starlab apart. NASA is not “looking for a build-up strategy,” Taylor said, but for full capability, and “our approach gets there the quickest.” Starlab, he said, is designed to reach orbit in a single launch, with no assembly in space.

Customers have signed reservations worth about $700 million, up from about $500 million in August. Starlab earns no revenue yet, and lost $7.5 million on an adjusted EBITDA basis in the quarter. Voyager owns 61 per cent of it.

What to watch

Voyager needs about $108 million in the fourth quarter to reach the bottom of its range, and $128 million to reach the top. Take out the roughly $15 million expected from Astrobotic and the rest of the business has to deliver $93 million to $113 million, against about $58 million in the third quarter — a jump of 62 to 96 per cent in three months.

Wolfe Research analyst Myles Walton asked whether the U.S. government’s stopgap budget would slow orders. Taylor said the forecast already takes “a risk-adjusted view” and that “we’re not getting too far out over our skis.”

The company has also postponed its Dec. 3 investor day so its Pittsburgh team can concentrate on Griffin-1, the Astrobotic lander due to launch no earlier than January for the Moon’s south pole. In its place, De Sousa sketched 2027 on the call: $150 million to $200 million of revenue from Astrobotic, and what he called an opportunity for at least 25 per cent growth in the rest of the business.

Griffin-1 will be the first real test of the Astrobotic acquisition. The fourth quarter will show whether the rest of the business can carry the forecast without it.