Theresa Condor
Analyst · Stifel
Thank you, Ben, and good afternoon, everyone. Revenue for the second quarter was $18 million. Excluding the maritime business we divested last year, core revenue expanded both year-over-year and sequentially, marking our strongest core revenue quarter since the divestiture. This is consistent with what we outlined in March when we described 2026 as a sequentially building second-half-weighted year. Two quarters in, that's exactly what we're seeing in the numbers. As a result, we're reaffirming our full-year revenue guidance, which at the midpoint represents 50% year-over-year core revenue growth. On our last call, I pointed to the specific milestones investors should watch this quarter: NOAA decisions on our in-year hyperspectral microwave sounding proposals, RFGL contract activity, and the continued expansion of our RFGL collection capacity. There was progress on each, so let me start there. On NOAA, the proposals we told you we were submitting in May have advanced to negotiation or closed. We are currently in the negotiation phase on an 8-figure contract opportunity tied to our Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder capability following the successful on-orbit validation of our HyMS payload. Combined with last week's NOAA Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder data contract extension, valued at up to $5 million in revenue over a 9-month term, we are encouraged by the growing interest in HyMS. These are 2 sizable opportunities that grew directly out of the flight-proven data we have been generating since the first quarter. On RFGL, we secured awards from 4 new international customers in the second quarter on top of the 5 new U.S. awards and 3 new international customers we reported in the first quarter. On capacity, the 19 satellites we deployed in the first quarter are reaching full operational status on schedule, and in early July, we launched 10 more, bringing our total to 29 satellites launched in 2026. Today, I want to go deeper on 3 things: where the U.S. government weather opportunity stands, why demand for RF intelligence keeps building, and how our European position and manufacturing footprint turn that demand into long-term growth. Going back to NOAA, on our first quarter call, we told you we were actively bidding on more than $150 million of opportunities across the NOAA portfolio. Last week marked a key milestone as the first of these opportunities crossed the finish line with a signed contract worth up to $5 million. On top of that, the 8-figure microwave sounding opportunity is within that pipeline, and both advanced from proposal to negotiation or contract signature since our last call. Each is built on the flight-proven data our HyMS payload has been generating since first light in March. As before, our existing NOAA Radio Occultation contract, which has been a cornerstone of our government weather business. Last year's one-year RO award was $11.2 million. That contract is in full execution today, and we expect the follow-on award to begin in September. As a reminder, NOAA is working to establish a multi-year $8 billion IDIQ contract under which efforts like RO can be awarded. Because that IDIQ vehicle is still being finalized, we expect the RO renewal to come in 2 phases. First, a shorter bridge award we expect to be finalized very soon, followed by a longer-term award once the IDIQ is in place. Taken together, we expect these contracts for RO data to be larger on an annual basis than the $11.2 million contract awarded last year. Beyond these 3 opportunities, a number of other opportunities within the NOAA portfolio continue to move through the pipeline. We are seeing similar weather demand internationally and in the commercial market as well. Recently, we were awarded a contract from EUMETSAT for RO data. This has been an annual contract for Spire, but this year we were able to expand this contract with a total annual value now over EUR 4 million. On the commercial weather front, we started off July by signing 2 6-figure awards for global weather forecasts along with historical weather data. Let me turn to RF intelligence because demand for this business is being shaped by something larger than any single program or procurement. Around the world, the radio frequency environment has become contested, and it is staying that way. GNSS jamming and spoofing now affect thousands of commercial ships and aircraft from Eastern Europe and the Baltic to the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Vessels broadcast positions that place them on land or go dark entirely. Aircraft reroute around interference corridors that persist for months. In a growing number of regions, operators simply cannot trust the navigation and identification signals the global economy was built on. When those signals are denied or falsified, governments and operators need an independent way to reestablish ground truth, where an emitter actually sits, which vessels have gone dark and where they went, which corridors are unsafe for aircraft. Our constellation delivers that intelligence today, drawing on more than a decade of investment in radio frequency geolocation, in jamming and spoofing detection through our ADS-B quality indicators, and in a constellation that revisits every point on Earth more than 100x a day. We believe this demand is durable. Interference outlasts the conflicts that put it in the news, and governments have started budgeting for space-based RF awareness the way they budget for other core infrastructure. That spending pattern has years left to run. We see it in our own bookings. In the second quarter, we secured RFGL awards from 4 new international customers. We continue to sign new pilots and extend existing ones. These engagements typically develop in stages. A pilot first, then a data subscription, then a larger operational program, and most of our international relationships sit in the early stages today. We see that as the setup for a multiyear runway. Our capacity is scaling alongside the demand. The 6 new satellite pairings deployed in the first quarter are reaching full operational status through the second and third quarters as planned. Our single satellite geolocation capability, demonstrated earlier this year on S-band and X-band signals, expands what each satellite can collect and lowers the constellation cost of coverage. With launch capacity reserved through 2028, we can keep adding collection capacity on our own timeline, even in a constrained launch market. Very few companies can meet this requirement with a deployed constellation, flight-proven capability, and manufacturing on both sides of the Atlantic. That positioning is a large part of why the European partnerships I will describe next came to us. During the quarter, we announced 2 strategic partnerships with Germany-based companies, Schaeffler and Diehl Defence, that we believe significantly strengthen our long-term positioning within the European space ecosystem. Our collaboration with Schaeffler brings together complementary capabilities to explore sovereign European space infrastructure and next-generation satellite technologies. Germany has long been one of Europe's leading industrial economies, and partnerships with established industrial leaders create opportunities to combine advanced manufacturing expertise with our operational space capabilities. Likewise, our agreement with Diehl Defence reflects growing interest in leveraging commercial space capabilities to support national security and defense applications. As governments modernize their defense architectures, resilient commercial satellite networks are increasingly viewed as important complements to traditional government-owned systems. We view these partnerships as more than individual agreements. They reflect our flight-proven infrastructure and operational track record becoming the foundation other industrial leaders build on as they extend into space. The timing matters because the European demand backdrop just got more concrete. In July, NATO leaders met in Ankara for the 2026 summit, and the Alliance's Defense Industry Forum announced more than $50 billion in new procurement commitments spanning integrated air and missile defense, uncrewed systems, and intelligence capabilities, building on the more than $139 billion increase in core defense investment that European allies and Canada have already delivered since last year's The Hague Summit. Also in early July, the European Union proposed 5 new European Defence Projects of Common Interest, including the Space EDPCI, worth up to EUR 24 billion by 2034. The Space EDPCI is structured around 7 capability areas including space-based early warning and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, a category that encompasses signals intelligence. The project aims to transform mature R&D into sovereign operational capabilities that no single member state can develop alone. Across Europe, governments increasingly recognize that sovereign access to space-derived data, resilient commercial infrastructure, and responsive satellite capabilities are strategic priorities. These investments will take time to translate into specific procurement programs, but we believe the direction is unmistakable, and the RFGL awards I described are the early evidence of this movement reaching our backlog. As these European opportunities continue to mature, they will further broaden and diversify our revenue base, reinforcing that our growth is being driven by multiple markets rather than any single opportunity. Because we already operate globally, maintain manufacturing capabilities in Europe, and have years of operational experience delivering mission-critical services, we believe we are well-positioned in a European market that has years left to run. Supporting all of this demand is a team we continue to strengthen. This quarter, we welcomed Eric ''Mel'' Mellinger to Spire as our Chief Commercial Officer. Mel joins us from ManTech International, where he helped drive double-digit year-over-year growth. His mandate is straightforward: convert the demand I have been describing into revenue. That demand extends beyond the $150 million in NOAA opportunities I described earlier. We're also tracking more than $100 million in opportunities across the U.S. federal pipeline, from ROMs to submitted proposals and active negotiations, with the potential for these to convert over the remainder of 2026. We're seeing that same momentum on the commercial side as we continue to build our commercial pipeline with recognizable brands. All of this demand only matters if we can build and launch to meet it. As I noted at the top, the 10 satellites we launched in early July brought our 2026 total to 29. That pace reflects the maturity of our manufacturing organization and the operational discipline we have built over many years. Our constellation strategy has always been about more than adding satellites. It is about operating a platform that delivers reliable, scalable services for customers who increasingly depend on real-time global data. One of the milestones I'm particularly proud of this quarter was the official opening of our new satellite manufacturing facility in Munich during May. With manufacturing operations now established in North America, Germany, and the U.K., our footprint provides the scale and rapid deployment capability required to capture government and defense pipelines, and it expands our production capacity to approximately 300 to 400 satellites annually. We have already begun to use that capacity in both regions. The satellites for the STRAT 5 program are being built in Boulder and are expected to launch later this year. Satellite integration work is underway in Munich today. As governments prioritize sovereign space capabilities and supply chain resilience, meaningful manufacturing on both sides of the Atlantic becomes an increasingly important competitive advantage. It is one very few companies in our industry can claim. We also continue to advance our technology. In July, Spire achieved a major milestone in our optical inter-satellite link program, successfully establishing our first cross-plane laser connection between 2 OISL-equipped satellites, building on our previous in-plane demonstrations. The satellites held a stable link for more than 5 minutes across roughly 5,000 kilometers, about the distance from New York to London. This technology lets satellites pass data directly to one another in orbit, cutting latency and reducing dependence on ground station proximity as our constellation scales. Before I hand the call to Ali, I want to spend a moment on how the rest of the year comes together, because I know the math many of you are doing. First half revenue was $33.9 million. Our full year guidance of $75 million to $85 million therefore implies roughly $41 million to $51 million in the second half, and I want to be specific about what carries us there. Start with what is already under contract. As of the end of July, over 85% of our full year guidance is contracted, up from the 76% shared in May. Our NOAA radio occultation contract remains in full execution. Our European radio occultation work, our space services programs, and our expanded commercial agreements are all in delivery through year-end. The STRAT 5 program continues to progress with satellites being built in Boulder and expected to launch later this year. Last week's hyperspectral microwave sounder data extension is now under contract, which represents up to $5 million in potential revenue over a 9-month term. Add what we expect to close in the near term. The 8-figure microwave sounding opportunity that is in active negotiation now, and the radio occultation bridge award that is expected to begin in September. We continue to expect the follow-on RO contracts taken together to exceed the $11.2 million annual value of last year's award. So when we reaffirm guidance today, that reaffirmation rests on a contracted base and execution, a renewal we expect shortly, and NOAA negotiations whose estimated scale we have now quantified for you. What remains between here and the high end of the range is execution through the second half. It's worth calling out that last week we filed an 8-K disclosing the dismissal of all of NorthStar's claims and awarding approximately $12.4 million in favor of Spire. We are pleased with this result. Between now and our next call, the markers to watch are the RO bridge award, the outcome of the microwave sounding negotiations, the STRATFI launch, and continued RFGL awards. We will report against each of them in the fall. With that, Ali, over to you.