There’s been a fair amount of drama and geopolitical intrigue surrounding Rivada Space Network’s proposed 600 satellite OuterNET constellation. The drama started with a spectrum licensing battle with China, which would have been enough, but didn’t end when the ITU licenses were secured and a $2.4 billion contract to build 300 of the satellites was awarded to Terran Orbital. In fact, It was just getting started. Rivada then apparently ran into delays securing a significant amount of funding for the constellation from a sovereign wealth fund. I say “apparently” because the details about this event, and every other element in this saga, remain murky and mostly unconfirmed. Whatever the reason (again reportedly geopolitical), the delay then resulted in a very high profile missed payment to Terran Orbital which caused significant problems for the small satellite builder at a critical (and expensive) point in its evolution into a highly automated rapid satellite manufacturing powerhouse.

There’s more drama, if you can believe it, but most of it isn’t worth covering here and will hopefully be forgotten as Rivada has finally made a payment:

Following the receipt of long-due payment, management has confirmed that Rivada has settled all existing outstanding invoices. However, the exact payment amount has been kept confidential by the involved parties. Nevertheless, owing to this payment, Terran Orbital is set to report an excess of $70 million year end cash balance as of Dec 31, 2023. It is a significant sequential uptick from the $38.7 million reported in the September quarter.

This will bolster the company’s financial stability and enable diligent execution of strategic objectives. These developments are expected to boost investors’ confidence. Additionally, Rivada is expected to make further milestone payments in fiscal 2024. Terran Orbital remains confident about fulfilling its delivery commitments per the Rivada contract within the scheduled time frame of 2025 to 2026.

While details aren’t as clear as many would like, this appears to be a win-win. This arrangement should allow Rivada to break up large block payments and production runs into more granular milestones that will allow them to better manage cash as they make the final push to secure funding and onboard OuterNET partners around the globe. At least that what appears to be happening from this vantage point. Meanwhile, Terran Orbital gets paid, can manage risk, and can help setup their partner (and themselves) for long-term success. If it works, as it increasingly looks like it will, they should both benefit substantially.