Defense & space tech: solid-rocket propulsion/energetics, missile-defense subsystems, space hardware, Astrobotic lunar landers · 67% owner of the Starlab commercial space station JV · Denver, CO · IPO June 2025 at $31
Pre-profit → segment SOTP: core FCFF (SBC expensed) + Starlab probability tree · reverse DCF · converts at straight-debt value · valued 2026-10-15
OVERVALUEDRISK: VERY HIGH
Price $25.93 · Base $4.15 · Price is +525% above base
What they do
Voyager is a government contractor that is trying to become a space-station operator. Today almost all of its revenue comes from the Defense & Space Technologies segment. In Q2 FY26, 93% of sales were to the U.S. government (NASA, Missile Defense Agency, DoD primes), 7% commercial, and almost nothing international. The segment sells solid-rocket propulsion and divert/attitude-control hardware for interceptors. It has a $500M+ build-out of the "American Defense Complex" in Pueblo, CO, sized for 15–20k propulsion units a month, and signed a $60M+ Anduril supply deal on 9/29. It also sells space hardware, airlocks and payload services, and power/thermal subsystems. Since the July 2026 Astrobotic acquisition (up to $300M), it builds lunar landers, including a new $298M NASA lander award, with an expected $60–70M annual run-rate. It makes money on cost-plus and fixed-price government contracts. Margins are thin today (Q2 gross margin 8%; management guides ~17% in Q3 and >20% in Q4).
The Starlab Space Stations segment has no revenue. It is a $2.8–3.3B single-launch commercial station (Starship, targeted 2029) to replace the ISS. Voyager owns ~67%, Airbus 30.5%, and Palantir, Mitsubishi and MDA hold small stakes. Starlab has collected $183M of a $217.5M NASA Phase-1 Space Act Agreement and holds over $500M of commercial reservations. Its economics depend on one decision: whether NASA picks Starlab as its anchor tenant. In March 2026 NASA said it now has budget for only one provider and floated an ISS-attached government core module instead. Key sensitivities: defense propulsion volumes and margins, NASA's 2026–27 commercial-station decision, cash burn (FY25 FCF −$155M; H1 FY26 −$140M), and dilution from $862.5M of converts plus ongoing SBC and stock-funded M&A.
The Take — A real defense-propulsion growth story inside a valuation that's already priced past the blue-sky case. Don't own it here.
The operating momentum is genuine. FY26 revenue guidance went from $225–255M in March to $275–305M in August (+66–84%). Q2 bookings were a record $113M (2.1× book-to-bill), and backlog reached a record $336M. The Astrobotic deal brought a $298M NASA lander award, and the Anduril propulsion deal shows the Pueblo plant has customers. Defense propulsion is a real bottleneck in U.S. munitions, and Voyager is one of the few new entrants with capacity coming online. I give the core business a generous path: revenue 4.2× to $1.23B by 2035 and a 12% steady-state EBIT margin, with SBC expensed. That margin is above what Kratos or Mercury earn and close to Curtiss-Wright/BWXT economics.
The cash math is the problem. The core business is still losing money: H1 FY26 clean operating loss was about $87M on $88M of revenue, and corporate cost alone was $46M in FY25. Free cash flow was −$155M in FY25 and −$140M in H1 FY26. Even on my base path the core doesn't generate positive FCFF until 2031, and it absorbs ~$600M of reinvestment through 2035. Discounted at an 11.8% WACC, the core is worth $465M. Explicit-period FCFF has a negative PV, so 123% of core value sits in the terminal value. That is a flag, not a comfort.
Starlab is an option, and on today's facts it's worth less than zero. If NASA picks Starlab (I assume ~$1.0B of Phase-2 funding, launch 2030, $1.2B/yr of revenue at 40% EBITDA margins by 2035), the whole project NPV at a 13% project rate is about −$54M. The remaining ~$2.6B of build cost eats the operating value. If NASA picks someone else (Axiom and Vast are further along in hardware), Voyager's 67% share of another ~$250M of spend before exit is a pure loss. At a 40% win probability, Starlab is worth −$108M to VOYG holders. For the price to work, Starlab would need to be worth ~$1.27B to Voyager (~$1.9B for the whole station). That is a certain win at well above blue-sky economics.
Reverse DCF: to reach $25.93 at my base growth path and base Starlab, the core needs a ~33% EBIT margin forever. That's software economics for a solid-rocket-motor shop. Holding a 12% margin, it needs 2.5× my growth rates every year. Even with a 16% margin and a guaranteed Starlab win, the core must grow at 1.9× base. My blue-sky case gets 1.6× growth, a 16% margin, a 2029 launch and a $1.6B/yr station, and it still lands at $24.46, below the price. The market is paying for a strategic-scarcity narrative ("one of the only U.S. commercial stations plus new SRM capacity"), not for cash flows.
This is the first build; there is no prior valuation. Street: 8 Buy / 2 Sell, mean target $44.50 (range $21–55). The Street is valuing it on EV/sales multiples. I am valuing it on cash.
Call: AVOID / SELL. No new money above the bull case ($10.69); value support isn't until single digits (prob-weighted $6.31). Holders: sell into strength, especially any NASA-decision or contract-award spike back toward the $31–33 late-September range. If you insist on exposure, treat it as a venture option capped at ≤0.5% of capital and accept that the base case is worth a sixth of the price. Q3 FY26 print Nov 2 after close, the first quarter with Astrobotic. The gross-margin step to ~17% is the tell. Defined-risk expression: Dec-18 or Jan-15 $30/$35 bear call spread. Dec IV is ~78–88%, and the mid is about $0.60–0.70 credit on $5 of width, but the chain is thin (zero open interest, very wide quotes), so work limit orders at the mid or skip it. Covered calls at $30–32 strikes for holders who won't sell outright. Never short it naked. Float is ~53M shares, and one NASA "Starlab selected" headline could gap it 30–50%.
Risk Profile — VERY HIGH
HIGH
NASA commercial-station decision (binary). NASA has budget for one provider, an ISS-attached core-module alternative is under study, and GAO says the go/no-go on ISS retirement comes in 2027. Long Starlab selection; short a NASA pivot to an ISS-attached path or to Axiom/Vast. This is a headline risk in both directions and the stock's biggest event.
HIGH
Cash burn / funding gap. FCF −$155M (FY25), −$140M (H1 FY26). Starlab's remaining ~$2.6B build is far larger than VOYG's ~$620M pro-forma cash. Expect more converts or equity, partner dilution, or project debt. Short capital markets closing on unprofitable space names.
HIGH
Execution on margin ramp. Q2 gross margin was 8%. The path to 17%/20%+ depends on fixed-price propulsion programs ramping cleanly at Pueblo. Long volume absorption; short cost overruns on fixed-price defense work.
MED
Dilution & capital structure. $460M 0.75% 2030 notes (conv. $30.98) and $402.5M 0% 2032 notes (conv. $40.82), partly offset by capped calls to $59.58 / $78.50. Add the Astrobotic stock earn-out, SBC (~$19M in FY25) and serial stock M&A (five deals in 2025).
MED
Defense budget / customer concentration. 93% U.S. government. Long Golden Dome / munitions replenishment; short continuing resolutions and shutdowns (the March guide already cited shutdown uncertainty).
LOW
Near-term solvency. ~$620M pro-forma cash plus a $212M undrawn revolver, and the earliest debt maturity is 2030. No 2026–27 liquidity crisis. The risk is value erosion, not default.
What the real bet is: you are long the core margin and NASA's pick, and short the remaining Starlab capital bill. The tornado's widest bars are the core steady-state margin and the discount rate, which are both duration effects of a business that doesn't make money until ~2030. The Starlab win probability matters less than you'd think, because on realistic build-cost and funding assumptions even a win is roughly NPV-neutral. The equity is a leveraged call on (a) defense propulsion becoming a 15%+ margin franchise and (b) NASA paying far more than $1B for Starlab.
Scenario values per share vs price
Bear: core 0.65× growth path, 8% margin; Starlab loses NASA and winds down. Base: core $1.23B 2035 revenue, 12% margin; Starlab 40% win (2030 launch). Bull: 1.3× path, 14% margin; Starlab certain win. Blue-sky: 1.6× path, 16% margin; Starlab wins, launches 2029 and reaches $1.6B/yr. Prob-weighted 20/50/20/10 = $6.31. All cases carry the same claims: ~$600M straight-debt value of the converts, $42M leases, ~$60M Astrobotic earn-out (est.), 63.0M diluted shares.
Green = above price $25.93; yellow = within ±5%; orange = up to 30% below; red = more than 30% below. No cell on this grid reaches the price. You need ~33% margins at 1.0×, or ~2.5× growth at 12%.
Starlab option grid: value/share by NASA-selection probability × station steady-state revenue
P(NASA picks Starlab) ↓ / steady-state station revenue →
$0.8B/yr
$1.2B/yr
$1.6B/yr
0%
$3.39
$3.39
$3.39
20%
$2.94
$3.77
$4.60
40%
$2.49
$4.15
$5.81
60%
$2.04
$4.53
$7.01
80%
$1.59
$4.90
$8.22
100%
$1.14
$5.28
$9.42
Each cell holds the core at base and changes only Starlab. Revenue scale matters more than win probability. At $0.8B/yr a win destroys value (higher probability lowers the number) because build cost exceeds operating value. Remaining build cost $2.6B (est.: $3.05B midpoint less ~$450M spent to date), NASA Phase-2 $1.0B (est.), 13% project discount rate.
Sensitivity: value/share by WACC (high-growth → stable) × terminal growth
FY23 operating detail not available from the sources used (FY23 net loss −$25.4M). H1 FY26 is six months. Clean EBIT = GAAP EBIT + acquired-intangible amortization + impairment/restructuring; SBC stays expensed. Margins are worsening as the company scales Starlab and corporate cost, while revenue growth is only now inflecting.
Normalization worksheet & R&D capitalization ($M)
Period
Revenue
GAAP EBIT
Acq. amort
One-offs
Clean EBIT
Margin
R&D
SBC
Starlab seg. adj EBITDA
FY2024
$144.2
−$48.4
$9.6
$5.9
−$32.9
−22.8%
$7.6
$3.8
−$14.1
FY2025
$166.4
−$108.5
$8.5
$2.1
−$97.9
−58.8%
$12.8
$18.9
−$18.7
H1 FY2026
$88.0
−$96.1
$9.1
n/d
−$87.0
−98.9%
$14.8
$7.9
n/d
Normalized (historical-average) margin
Not meaningful: no profitable year to normalize to
R&D capitalization is shown for completeness. It is FCFF-neutral here (expensed R&D becomes reinvestment, and VOYG pays no cash tax while it carries ~$400M of NOLs, est.), and the research asset is immaterial against ~$620M of invested capital ex-Starlab. Management says internally funded R&D is ~20% of FY26 revenue across COGS/SG&A, which is larger than the $14.8M reported R&D line. One-offs: FY24 impairment $3.6M + restructuring $2.3M; FY25 restructuring $2.1M.
Why not a standard single-entity FCFF
A consolidated FCFF would blend a scaling defense manufacturer with a $2.6B pre-revenue construction project that has a binary government funding event and 33% outside owners. A consolidated growth rate or margin means nothing for either piece. I split it: (1) a 10-year FCFF on the core (Defense & Space Technologies, Astrobotic, all corporate cost), starting from a 2026 H2 stub built off guidance; (2) Starlab as a project NPV at 100% (build spend net of NASA funding, then 25 years of operations) × 67%, probability-weighted between win and wind-down; (3) a reverse DCF to show what the price requires. The converts are valued at straight-debt PV plus residual uncapped option value, which is how Damodaran treats hybrids. Carrying them at face would cut ~$4.17/share more.