Voyager Technologies, Inc. ($VOYG)

Welcome to the Voyager Technologies Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to your first speaker today, Adi Padva, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Mr. Padva, the floor is yours.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I'm joined today by Dylan Taylor, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Phil de Sousa, our Chief Financial Officer. Today's call includes forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties detailed in our earnings materials and SEC filings, including the Risk Factors section of our IPO prospectus. We undertake no obligation to update these statements. We will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation of these measures is available in our earnings materials on our website. I will now turn the call over to Dylan to begin with Slide 3.

Thank you, Adi, and good morning, everyone. 2025 was a fantastic year for Voyager, which was founded just 6 years ago. 2025 was the first year we operated as a public company, moving from building the platform to rapidly scaling it. And we are now well positioned to accelerate and industrialize our growth in 2026. In fact, based upon a record backlog, we are significantly raising our revenue guidance for the year, and we'll provide more specifics on that raise in a moment. For the sixth consecutive year, we delivered growth. Our Defense and National Security segment grew significantly, up 59% year-over-year, driven by execution on Next Generation Interceptor and other classified programs. Our backlog increased 33% year-over-year, entering 2026 with $266 million to support our accelerating growth. During 2025, we raised over $1 billion, including and executing on a successful IPO and issuing a follow-on convertible note, all strengthening our liquidity to fund innovation and strategic growth initiatives. We completed and integrated several acquisitions, expanding our capabilities to meet growing customer demand, which we expect to remain strong in today's geopolitical environment. These expanded capabilities are enabling us to advance several of our key initiatives, including Golden Dome. We established our orbital data center capabilities, launching the first space-hardened, managed cloud infrastructure to the International Space Station. We enhanced our missile defense capabilities with integrated optical technology for Next Generation Interceptor and cutting-edge electric propulsion. We are enhancing space situational awareness with AI-enabled automated target recognition and intelligence analytics for space-based radar systems. Later in my remarks, I will provide more details on Estes Energetics, a significant growth opportunity for the company. Innovation is key to our strategy. Given the large opportunity set in front of us, we increased our innovation spend in 2025, which includes customer and internally funded R&D to over 20% of revenue. Examples of the outcomes of our efforts include successful critical design review of our throttleable propulsion for NGI, new products such as AI-enabled edge computing, patented extraterrestrial manufacturing method for high-performance optical communications and patented Dust Repellent Coating technology that landed on the moon aboard Firefly's Blue Ghost lander. We expect to accelerate our innovation spend going forward to strengthen our competitive moats and capitalize on our growing addressable markets. We're also expanding our innovation ecosystem through strategic partnerships. During the year, we formed new partnerships. VISTA or Voyager Institute for Space Technology and Advancement at the Ohio State Campus is a first-of-its-kind U.S. campus purpose-built to accelerate the commercial space economy with in-space research, manufacturing and services by bringing together aerospace, defense and commercial industries, academia and government. We recently announced partnerships with the University of North Dakota and the University of Connecticut and anticipate expanding this ecosystem to other innovative campuses domestically and internationally. In addition to investing in technology and partnerships, we also continue to invest in our people. We added Paul Tilghman as Chief Technology Officer, who joined us from Anduril and was previously at DARPA and Microsoft. John Baum as Chief Marketing Officer, a former fighter pilot who joined us after a successful career at the Department of War and was Co-Founder of Draken. And most recently, Shoshanna Moody as Chief Administrative Officer, with experience scaling emerging businesses such as Instacart and Lyft. Moving on to Starlab, a transformational growth engine for Voyager. We view Starlab as a generational investment opportunity built as an infrastructure-like platform with the potential to deliver attractive and enduring returns over multiple decades. During 2025, Starlab accomplished meaningful milestones, ending the year by completing our commercial critical design review, a major technical milestone with NASA that validates the maturity of the program and clears the path to full-scale construction of this station. To date, we've completed 31 program milestones, generating $183 million of cash receipts from NASA, which underscores both performance and disciplined execution. Many investors attended our first Investor Day in Houston in November, where they also toured the full-scale high-fidelity Starlab mockup at NASA's Johnson Space Center. It's the only commercial space station mockup in the facility right next to the ISS mockup where NASA trains astronauts. During the year, Starlab secured meaningful capital from marquee investors and partners, including Janus Henderson, Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, Seven Grand Managers and Space Applications Services, strengthening Starlab's balance sheet and reinforcing external confidence in the platform. Finally, we're seeing strong customer demand, and I'm excited to share with you that Starlab's commercial payload capacity is fully reserved, providing early visibility into the future utilization and revenue potential. To summarize, in 2025, we strengthened the foundation of our growth engines in National Security and commercial space, leveraging our disruptive and innovation platform and multi-use technology stack. Acquisitions will continue to be an integral part of our growth strategy and our strong financial position supports that effort. Now I'll review our most recent acquisition, Estes Energetics, now Voyager Energetics on Slide 4. Voyager Energetics strengthens a foundational layer of our missile Defense and National Security platform. Energetics, propulsion and critical resources are essential to interceptors, solid rocket motors and propulsion architectures that sit at the heart of modern missile defense and highly applicable to Golden Dome. In an environment with supply chain sovereignty and domestic manufacturing capacity are strategic imperatives, control over these inputs directly impacts program execution, schedule readiness and mission readiness. Estes converts a historically vulnerable segment of the value chain into a strategic advantage. Specifically, it provides the U.S. with controlled onshore manufacturing and surge capacity aligned with the Department of War's priorities at a time when freedom of maneuver and deterrence are increasingly important. Voyager Energetics also deepens our vertical integration across propulsion and interceptor architectures, increasing the portion of high-value content we control within missile defense systems. As programs such as Next Generation Interceptor and other advanced missile defense initiatives transition from development to production, this integration enhances throughput, improves margin durability and reinforces customer confidence in our ability to deliver it at speed and at scale. This acquisition is a great example of how we intentionally build Voyager, acquiring durable infrastructure-level capabilities that strengthen the industrial base, aligned tightly with customer priorities and compound long-term returns for shareholders. Turning to Slide 5. I'll now highlight our priorities for 2026. Our top priority for the year is to accelerate growth. First, as I mentioned previously, we are meaningfully raising our 2026 revenue guidance initially provided at our Investor Day in November to a range of $225 million to $255 million, representing growth of 35% to 53% year-over-year. This acceleration relative to last year and long-term CAGR is driven by demand for our Defense and National Security technologies. Programs aligned with Golden Dome are expanding in scope and urgency. SigNet now bolstered with new AI capabilities is also seeing higher customer interest and importantly, acquisitions are adding to our growth momentum. Our next priority is building a sustainable platform for scaled growth. We recently broke ground on the Voyager American Defense Complex in Colorado, a major expansion advancing the Pentagon's urgent call for industry to accelerate domestic missile defense and tactical munitions supply. The Voyager American Defense Complex will be 150,000 square feet for advanced manufacturing, operations and testing and designed to support high-volume production of military-grade components, propulsion systems and energetics used to address the increasing demand from the Department of War. Next, we are making deliberate investments in technology innovation to meet customer demand. Our increased IRAD spend is focused on strategic campaigns directly aligned to customer priorities such as Golden Dome, mission-critical advanced electronics, dynamic space operations such as propulsion and navigation, and also AI and autonomous industrialization to shorten lead times from design to output. Finally, 2026 will be a pivotal year for Starlab as we transition to full-scale procurement and development. We anticipate NASA will soon release the RFP for the second phase of the Commercial LEO Development program, or CLD, with a decision later in the year. We are highly confident in the modernized, cost-efficient and commercially scalable solution that Starlab is delivering to NASA and other key stakeholders. The architecture is designed to provide continuous U.S. presence in low-Earth orbit while enabling a broader transition to commercially-led operations. As the program advances, we are expanding Starlab's commercial ecosystem, building durable partnerships across mission logistics, life sciences, biopharma, advanced materials and other high-growth verticals. The approach strengthens demand visibility and reinforces Starlab's role as an ecosystem, not a single-use platform. The early demand signals that Starlab commercial capacity is fully reserved are reinforcing our confidence. So to recap, we closed 2025 very strongly despite a prolonged government shutdown and our growth is accelerating into 2026, giving us the confidence to raise our full year revenue guidance. We have tremendous opportunities to capture additional market share, and we'll continue to fund innovation in IRAD to fully capitalize on these opportunities. With that, I'll turn the call over to Phil to walk through the financials in more detail.

Thanks, Dylan. Turning to Slide 6. I'll begin with the fourth quarter results. Net sales increased 24% year-over-year, driven by strong execution in our Defense and National Security segment. Growth was driven by continued progress on the Next Generation Interceptor program, classified programs as well as contributions from newly acquired businesses. We ended the year with total backlog of $266 million, a 41% sequential increase from last quarter. This step-up reflects new program awards, expanding scope on existing programs and contributions from acquired businesses, all of which are significantly improving our revenue visibility and accelerating growth in 2026. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was a loss of $21.8 million compared to a loss of $6.3 million last year. The year-over-year change reflects investments on innovation, talent acquisition and corporate infrastructure build. These investments are intentional and placed ahead of growth, establishing the operational foundation to ensure we scale efficiently. On the bottom line, adjusted EPS was a loss of $0.37. This compared to a loss of $2.09 in the prior year, with comparability reflecting a higher share count following our IPO. Turning to Slide 7. I will discuss segment performance for the fourth quarter. Defense and National Security net sales increased 63% year-over-year, driven by execution on Next Generation Interceptor classified programs as well as contributions from acquired businesses. Segment adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $4.5 million. This reflecting increased R&D and talent investments. Space Solutions net sales declined 29% year-over-year and entirely due to the anticipated conclusion of a multiyear NASA services contract. Segment adjusted EBITDA improved to $2.3 million compared to $1.2 million in the prior year. Here, our volume decline was more than offset by favorable mix and disciplined cost management. Today, while Starlab does not generate revenue, during the quarter, Starlab continued to achieve NASA milestones, generating cash receipts of $10 million. This highlighting the continued execution, progress and momentum. It is noteworthy that in addition to NASA milestone cash receipts, we are also seeing very strong support of Starlab from high-quality investors as part of Starlab's Series A capital raise. Now turning to Slide 8 to recap our full year performance. For the full year, net sales increased 15% year-over-year, a 33% year-over-year increase, excluding the planned wind down of the legacy NASA contract within Space Solutions. The growth here was led by Defense and National Security expanding 59% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year was a loss of $69.9 million compared to a loss of $30 million last year. Adjusted EPS was a loss of $2.05 compared to a loss of $5.72 in the prior year. Turning to Slide 9 for a review of our full year segment performance. Defense and National Security net sales increased 59% year-over-year, while segment adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $4.5 million. Significant growth in Next Generation Interceptor and classified ISR Programs were the main growth drivers here. Space Solutions net sales declined 36% year-over-year, and as I mentioned earlier, primarily due to the planned wind down of a legacy NASA services contract. Segment adjusted EBITDA was a slight loss of $0.8 million. Starlab achieved 11 milestones during 2025, and we have achieved 31 milestones program to date with milestone-based cash receipts since inception of $183 million. As a reminder, this is part of our $218 million NASA Commercial LEO Development Phase 1 award to support program development and execution in replacing the International Space Station. Wrapping up here, we're encouraged by the momentum across our businesses, and we are increasingly confident in our ability to execute on our backlog, scale our business and deliver long-term value through disciplined growth and strategic investment. Let's turn to Slide 10 and cover our financial position. As we execute our growth strategy, we continue to operate from a position of financial strength and flexibility. We ended the year with $491 million in cash and access to $213 million in credit facilities. All this resulting in total liquidity of well over $700 million. Our liquidity supports a disciplined growth-oriented capital allocation strategy. We continue to execute our targeted priorities for acquisitions, particularly opportunities to enhance our vertical integration or add differentiated capabilities, all the while also funding organic investments to develop new technologies and to further scale our existing platform. Turning to Slide 11. We are raising our 2026 net sales guidance to a range of $225 million to $255 million. All this representing 35% to 53% year-over-year growth and a clear acceleration from 2025. This growth is driven by demand in Defense and National Security, including Golden Dome aligned programs as well as contributions from other areas. With the wind down of the NASA services contract behind us, we expect to see Space Solutions once again return to growth in 2026. In 2026, we are making investments directly linked to opportunities we are seeing across our markets. Investment and incremental growth are clearly connected. We are investing because demand is expanding and customers are pulling us into larger multi-year, mission-critical programs. Gross margin for the year is expected to be in the mid-teens, reflecting targeted investments in manufacturing capacity ahead of growth acceleration. Notably, internally funded research and development will increase to approximately 20% of net sales, advancing mission-critical capabilities aligned with customer priorities, including national defense initiatives such as the Golden Dome, all the while continuing to also innovate across our existing platforms. We expect modest SG&A leverage as revenue growth begins to absorb public company costs. In addition to innovation investments, capital expenditures, excluding Starlab, are expected to be approximately $60 million to $70 million. Here, we are focused on scaling domestic energetics and munitions production, advanced electronics and propulsion capacity as well as product line enhancements. Importantly, these investments are tied to programs where we have line of sight to growing demand. Starlab enters its full system development phase in 2026 and is expected to ramp investment levels executing to plan. Starlab investments, including operating expenses, procurement and capital expenditures will continue to be supported by diversified funding sources, including NASA's CLD program, other government entities, domestic and international as well as capital markets. 2026 is a pivotal year towards delivering on our long-term financial framework. To emphasize, we continue to target a 25% organic growth CAGR, gross margins in the range of 30% to 35%, resulting in mid-teens adjusted EBITDA margin, excluding Starlab and low teens free cash flow margin, again, excluding Starlab. Starlab once in orbit is expected to generate $4 billion of annual revenues and $1.5 billion of annual free cash flow, providing a significant value creation opportunity for shareholders. In summary, we continue to invest in growth to support accelerating demand for our mission-critical capabilities with a clear line of sight to scale, operating leverage and cash generation as execution builds. This framework balances our near-term execution with durable long-term value. With that, I'll turn it back over to Dylan.

Thank you, Phil. To wrap up on Slide 12, 2025 was a year marked by transformational execution for Voyager, backed by customer momentum and supported by a platform purpose-built for mission urgency and scale. We strengthened our foundation by entering the public markets, delivered strong growth, completed strategic acquisitions that deepen vertical integration and advanced Starlab through major milestones. Each step expanded capability and reduced risk. The opportunities ahead across missile defense, national security and commercial space are funded, measurable and accelerating, and we are well positioned to convert that demand into sustained growth and long-term shareholder value. I am confident in our team, our strategy and the strength of our technology stack as we execute in 2026 and beyond. Operator, we're now ready to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Ron Epstein with Bank of America.

Dylan, I was wondering if you could just maybe go into some more detail on what really prompted the revenue guide and what you're feeling really comfortable about to do that?

Yes. Well, I appreciate it, Ron. Good to hear from you. So a couple of points I would make. First of all, it's a terrific environment for our products and services in general. Certainly, defense spending, as we know, is on the increase, but probably more importantly than that, structurally, the way the Department of War is procuring products and services is evolving, it's really playing to our strengths. It's really leaning into the innovation side of things. Everything is being challenged in terms of legacy programs versus new advanced technologies. So that's playing directly into our strengths. So a great environment, record pipeline, record backlog. And then if I dive deeper into the demand signals, it's really across the board. It's everything from our advanced electronics capability, which is really seminal to a lot of these programs. We're seeing the demand signal very, very strong in propulsion on multiple programs factoring into Golden Dome. The Energetics business that we just acquired, we're seeing huge demand signals on that as well as the Department of War looks to replenish their stockpiles. And then I would say also on communications, sensing and data processing, huge demand signals on that as well. So it's really across the board, and that's why we have the conviction based upon the record pipeline, based upon the record backlog to raise revenue guidance into the year.

And then maybe just kind of as a follow-up to that on Starlab with a NASA administrator set and things seeming more stable on the top of NASA. When would you expect a down select decision on the Starlab?

Yes. Definitely this year, Ron, we still anticipate a down select this year. To be more precise, it's difficult to say. We would anticipate the RFP is going to come out in the next 60 days or so and basing that on language that was in the NASA authorization bill that just passed committee. But if you figure roughly, I don't know, 4 to 5 months for selection once that RFP is out, then that would be sort of late summer, early fall. But I would definitely anticipate selection within calendar year 2026.

Your next question comes from the line of Myles Walton with Wolfe Research.

Maybe, Phil, you gave us a number of the moving pieces on the EBITDA walk. Could you maybe flesh that out if you want to, to get to sort of a range? And then relating to the higher CapEx, we've seen a lot of the missile providers find a way to get what are effectively advances, but basically higher milestone payments coincident with the CapEx expenditures to lessen the load on free cash flow. Could you touch on that as well?

Myles, I'll take that first one and just ask you to repeat the second question for me. But from an EBITDA perspective, you're 100% right. We are guiding to an EBITDA loss in 2026. It shouldn't come as a surprise. We continue to see tremendous opportunity to grow our business, invest in our business. So as part of that, we're accelerating a significant amount of our own internally funded research and development. We know that there's a strong signal for demand for our product for our innovative solutions that we already have and are contracted and the next generation of those. And so we're going to continue to invest in growing our business. We see a strong signal, as Dylan mentioned earlier, from the marketplace that that's going to continue. It's not just a short-term duration. So we're going to continue to invest in our business here in 2026. Important too is, as we start to scale and grow through the back half of this year, we anticipate to still, if you would achieve our longer-term aspirations of being EBITDA positive exiting 2027 and be free cash flow positive in 2028. And so that's, I think, is a really important element to make sure that investors and analysts alike understand. We are committed. In fact, if anything, we're enthused with the increasing demand for our product and see opportunity to actually potentially achieve some of those targets earlier than we had previously anticipated despite our investment here in 2026.

Sorry, it's Dylan. I think just to touch on your second part of your question if I understood it correctly, we're seeing tremendous demand on the propulsion missile defense side across multiple programs. So I think part of what I would want to communicate on that is, in addition to Next Generation Interceptor, our technology is quite relevant to other programs. And whether it's THAAD or PAC-3 or some of these others. And so 2 things are happening. One is our technology continues to be relevant to being spec-ed in on those programs. And then the second part is the demand for those, let's say, the quantities under those programs are increasing given the geopolitical circumstances in the world. And then touching on another part of your question, which is, is there nondilutive funding and/or milestone payments available for these programs? The answer to that is yes, and we're absolutely driving that and expect some additional detail and announcements on that as we roll forward into 2026. But right now, we're not communicating any of that quite yet. We're not in a position to do so. But you're absolutely right. There is a lot of nondilutive funding available to accelerate not only these programs, but the quantities on these programs. So we're very optimistic that, that's going to be very beneficial as we look to scale our propulsion technology as well.

Yes, that was the question, Dylan. And just one follow-up, if I could. The Starlab percentage ownership at this point by Voyager following the fundraising, where does that sit today?

I believe we can get you an exact number, Myles, but I believe we're sitting at...

At about 60%.

Yes. It's right at just north of 60%. I think it's 61% last time I checked, but we can get you a precise number.

Your next question comes from the line of Seth Seifman with JPMorgan.

This is Rocco on for Seth. How should we think about growth in Defense and National Security next year? Should NGI remain the main growth driver? Or are there other growth drivers that should be called out?

In '26?

Yes, in '26.

Yes. No, it's really across the board. So NGI, for sure, on the propulsion side of things, that's a big part of it. I wish I could give you more specificity on the Golden Dome in general, but there are a lot of programs associated with Golden Dome that are being spec'd in currently. Those announcements -- award announcements haven't been made public yet. But rest assured, our technology is quite relevant to those various programs. So stay tuned on that. And then as I mentioned earlier, in addition to the propulsion technology, we're seeing huge demand signal on the advanced electronics part of our business, which is really foundational to a lot of defense programs in general. And then the energetic side, as I mentioned, and then advanced communications and sensing. So a lot of our SIGINT data processing that sits mostly in the intelligence community and classified programs, we're seeing strong demand signals there as well. So yes, it's really across the board with an emphasis, I would say, on propulsion. Phil, would you add anything to that?

Yes. I'd certainly -- well, one, I want to remind everybody how diversified our Defense National Security portfolio is today, especially with the strategic acquisitions of ExoTerra and Estes in the back half of last year. So to kind of reframe, certainly, this past fourth quarter, NGI was a significant driver of our growth. NGI actually grew over 100% year-over-year in Q4. NGI was up about 100% year-over-year in the calendar year 2025. As we enter 2026, bear in mind, about $200 million of our backlog sits in within Defense and National Security and only about 25% of that is actually tied to NGI, which is a fantastic program as a base, and we look forward to the scaling of that program as we move from design phase here in 2026 into low rate production and high rate production in 2027 and 2028, respectively. But just as a key reminder to investors, we are far more diversified than just Next Generation interceptor as important program as it is to us.

Yes. And just final point I would make is, again, record backlog. And the record backlog is based upon record pipeline. So we really like the visibility we're seeing and the demand drivers we're seeing. And as a management team, the way we think about value creation is build pipeline. That's why we're super excited about the record pipeline, make sure that we turn that into backlog. And of course, we at record backlog, which then, of course, transfers into revenue, EBITDA and cash flow. So the funnel, Rocco, is just tremendous, and we're super bullish about the demand signals that we're seeing.

Right. And digging into that funded backlog in Defense and Security, I mean it's over doubled quarter-over-quarter. Should we think about the kind of unannounced Golden Dome awards as being the primary driver there of the growth? Or is there another kind of program to call out?

Yes. It's not included. It's not included. So think of this as things that have been announced and things that haven't been announced are not yet in those numbers.

I go back to the initial question from Ron asking us about the confidence in our visibility, as you said, in our revenue guide for 2026. And obviously, it starts with that record backlog position. But it's also, if you would -- and I don't mean to sound overly enthusiastic. I'm supposed to be the CFO and more of the realist here in the room, but we are tremendously excited by the pipeline and how that's going to crystallize for us over the course of not just first half of this year, but even as we extend out to the back half of the year. We know this administration is going to be heavy into upping the defense budget, the defense allocations, if you would. And clearly, a lot of the onshoring demand that we're excited about is not reflected in this backlog. It's all in front of us in terms of order opportunity for us into '26. We have to get through 2026 first. But as we look out to 2027, it will make for yet another acceleration in growth profile for Voyager.

Your next question comes from the line of Justin Lang with Morgan Stanley.

I'm on for Kristine today. I appreciate all the detail at the top on Estes. I was hoping you could provide a little more color on how that business factors into your '26 outlook and how you think about synergy capture from here. And we've heard a lot about fragility within the missile propulsion supply base. So just curious if you could size maybe the magnitude of investment required to build out capacity in that business? And then I have a follow-up.

Yes. So I'll take a stab at that, and I'll pass it over to Phil, especially to talk about the cost portion. But yes, the energetics portion of our business is going to be increasingly strategic and critical. If you look at the value chain for propulsion and missile defense in general, but also factoring into things like munitions, which is another key focus of the administration. Within that value chain, energetics is one of the key components, not only from a value capture standpoint, but also as a critical supply chain input. And it's at the confluence of not only the fact that this is essential to make these systems work, but it's also at the confluence of the administration's priority for critical chemicals, which is the same strategic orientation that they had towards critical minerals like antimony and things like that. So that's a key focus. It also is at the confluence of onshoring because a lot of these energetics are currently not made in the U.S. So there's a few factors here. One is we can control more of the production inputs, which gives us more control over the supply chain, which ultimately gives us speed to market, which is what the customer is asking for. Furthermore, it allows us to build out this Voyager ADC, the American Defense Complex, which is relevant to all of our propulsion technologies. There's actually some CapEx offset with this Estes Energetics acquisition we made, where we're able to use some of their facilities to offset some CapEx that we had anticipated with our TDACS technology. So we're super excited about that. And then the other thing, which isn't in our numbers, but we're still, I think, very optimistic about is all of this is eligible for nondilutive funding from the government under this critical chemicals framework and onshoring framework. So I think that's another opportunity for value capture and CapEx offset. So when you think about this Voyager American Defense Complex and what it's supporting, it's not only supporting the energetics business, which is a critical input, it's setting us up for scale production for our entire propulsion technology suite. So think of this as a foundational investment that's going to lead to huge scaling and upside on the revenue side for propulsion more generally. So we're super excited about that. I think it's going to be ultimately a critical competitive advantage and moat that we're going to have that other providers are not going to have. And again, I think it's completely aligned with the administration's goals, stated goals for these critical inputs as well. So with that, I'll pass it over to Phil.

Yes. And again, thanks for the question. So -- and one thing I think I'd really start by highlighting is, as we acquired these businesses, the first thing that Voyager looks to do is integrate the businesses into our portfolio. So don't think of these as a stand-alone operation kind of going forward. We will quickly integrate them. As Dylan mentioned, it's not just Estes, it's ExoTerra. It's our former predecessor Valley Tech business. It's all really part of our strategic defense portfolio. And so Estes along with ExoTerra, does nothing but strengthen our vertical integration around propulsion. It's tied to multiple growth drivers, including Golden Dome. Estes alone from an energetics perspective, adds over $1 billion of opportunity to our pipeline. So again, back to the backlog, $266 million entering the year, very little of that tied to energetics. The opportunity is all in front of us. We know the opportunity is real. The U.S. government continues to call for it. When we highlight $60 million to $70 million of CapEx in 2026, of course, that's all excluding Starlab. A significant portion of that is going to be tied to the Voyager American Defense Complex. Again, it's not only specifically Estes or energetics. It's also tied to propulsion, the broader propulsion portfolio and supporting our grander, Golden Dome driver -- or growth drivers, I should say, and initiatives.

Got it. That's great color. And then sort of relatedly, just on Golden Dome specifically, as that opportunity set takes shape, just curious the signal you're getting from the customer if they're really stressing an industry sort of invest upfront here and you're seeing maybe a pay-to-play type dynamic emerge? Any color there would be helpful.

Yes. Well, again, record pipeline. About $1.6 billion of our record pipeline is associated with Golden Dome opportunities. So we're super bullish on the opportunity that we see. In terms of the procurement strategy, which is really, I think, embedded in your question, we are seeing the customer and the Department of War looking for new ways to incentivize commercial providers to not only expect the technology they need, but to move faster to develop these systems. And of course, that need is urgent. I think that plays to our strengths, right, because we're more maneuverable, more entrepreneurial, more flexible, more adaptable than certainly a lot of the legacy players in this space are. So we actually welcome this, I would say, creative procurement approach that the customer is asking for. And then ultimately, keep in mind, the technologies that we're putting into play in the Golden Dome have already passed things like critical design view with -- critical design review on next-generation interceptor, right? So this is already proven technology. So even if it's a milestone-based contract, we have a lot of confidence that the tech is already going to work as opposed to, let's say, developing systems that might have unproven technology being spec'd in. We could be more specific on the Golden Dome, but currently, we're not able to talk specifically about the specifics of those contracts. But I would say, generally speaking, the customer is looking for new and innovative ways to procure that are disrupting the status quo approach.

I think, Dylan, if I could just double down and emphasize. So think of not just the CapEx, but the innovation investment that we have planned for here in 2026, it's extremely deliberate. And it's a deliberate investment ahead of growth, not ahead of opportunity. If we didn't have line of sight to orders in our pipeline, line of sight to larger programs that are scaling in terms of moving from design phase into production phase, we wouldn't be making these investments ahead of this growth. So just to kind of reiterate our confidence, what that growth profile looks like. And of course, like Voyager has demonstrated in years past, being ahead of the curve, if you would, so not necessarily waiting for the opportunities to knock on our door. We are -- if you're positioning ourselves to capture a great share or a portion of that share of that market as it unveils and it evolves.

Yes. And I just want to emphasize one thing. Our record backlog does not include the upside from these Golden Dome opportunities.

Your next question comes from the line of Greg Konrad with Jefferies.

So you spent a lot of time talking about the Defense and National Security side. If maybe we could talk about Space Solutions a little bit. I think you said now that some of the wind down is behind them, you expect it to return to growth in 2026. What do you see as the biggest drivers of that? And any way to maybe quantify the growth expectations for Space?

Yes. So I'll take that, Greg. So just a reminder, right? So fourth quarter revenue down entirely driven by the planned wind down of the NASA low-margin services contracts. So as we -- if you would reset 2026. We see continued demand for mission management services on the ISS and it certainly continues to operate today and think of that as the bridge to Starlab, which we're already seeing continuous demand. And in fact, we know it's our current mission management services, customer relationships, managing things on the International Space Station today that's leading to that overbooked, if you would, commercial demand that we're seeing on Starlab already. So as we kind of look out to 2026 and 2027, we continue to see low earth orbit as a demand driver. Looking out even beyond, certainly, the focus on lunar and perhaps we can talk a little bit about the announcement we made today in that space and how that lends itself to that. I think that there's upside opportunity in Space Solutions. I look forward to seeing it return to growth in 2026, albeit modest relative to our Defense and National Security business, which is supported by a tremendous amount of backlog entering the year. But make no mistake, Space Solutions continues to be a growth driver and a growth focus for Voyager.

Yes. And I would just add, so we're very bullish on Space Solutions. I know we've spent a lot of time talking about the Defense side. But we also see great demand on the Space Solutions side. Just to reiterate our strategy there, we call it the 3Ls, which is LEO, Lunar and Lagrange, Lagrange being a proxy for deep space. So we'll have more to talk about on our Max Space investment probably on our next quarterly call because that's fresh. But think of us as focusing on the technologies that enable administration goals in all 3 of those domains, low earth orbit, the lunar environment and deep space. And so we have relevant technology already that applies to all 3 of those domains, and we're going to look to fund IRAD and/or make acquisitions and/or investments in technologies that are again going to address all 3 of those domains. And as Phil pointed out, we see a huge opportunity in lunar and the return to the moon with lunar infrastructure. And then, of course, a lot of our foundational mission management business is leading directly to these demand signals we're getting on Starlab, which is really well -- positioning us well to capture the majority of the market share available in low earth orbit. So we're feeling very bullish about that. 100% of our commercial demand for Starlab is already reserved, which I think is a fantastic outcome given the fact that we won't be in orbit for another 36 months.

And then maybe just as a follow-up, that's a good transition to Starlab. Any way to maybe quantify some of the financial impact in 2026? I think most of the numbers you gave are ex Starlab, thinking about innovation, CapEx and then it seems like potentially some offset given you've sold out the payload capacity. How should we think about the free cash flow usage and any inflows tied to Starlab in 2026?

Yes, Greg, I think really important to note in terms of planning cash flow around Starlab in 2026 is, one, I'm driving a -- think of it as a cash neutral profile, meaning it's not just about free cash flow, but it's also about our successful fundraising for Starlab, and that's nondilutive capital as well as dilutive capital through our successful Series A for Starlab that's been ongoing. We anticipate, obviously, NASA to step in during the year as well, but it's going to be -- also be other international space agencies. And as we kind of start to approach the latter part of the year, we'll start to expect some pre-advanced fundings to come in from customers already. To that point, and I'll highlight, I know we've talked a lot about our record backlog in the $266 million. But just to highlight and be fully transparent with everybody, there's actually $6 million of backlog associated with Starlab, which is quarters ahead of what I would have expected to actually have hit. And so back to the growing demand, growing necessity for a low earth orbit replacement for ISS and Starlab's great position to do so. We feel great about that. From a financial perspective, Starlab is intended to be, if you would, cash neutral for the year. We do anticipate free cash flow to be a cash outflow that will be funded by both dilutive and nondilutive capital coming into the year. I think that's the important piece to highlight. From a Voyager perspective, just to remind everybody, the JV structure actually reduces Voyager's capital exposure to Starlab. Our diversified funding within Starlab itself limits Voyager's capital burden. And again, just to highlight the early demand visibility, the diversified customer base we see for Starlab gives us tremendous excitement as we look out to later in 2026 and certainly 2027 as we start to move from design and actually constructing the new station.

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Leshock with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

I wanted to ask on the government shutdown and what you're expecting from the catch-up there and how that plays out in '26. Is there one quarter that might see the biggest benefit? Or is that relatively consistent as the year progresses?

I can take that as well. The government shutdown had a minor, if you would, impact or a relatively small impact to us actually in the fourth quarter. Probably would have had even bigger backlog, even more orders to report in Q4, if not for the prolonged government shutdown. So as excited as we are about total record backlog of $266 million, that would have been higher. So I look forward to Q1 and certainly Q2 being perhaps a little bit higher in terms of orders than perhaps historically speaking, we would have seen. From a revenue perspective, that delay, if you will, in the fourth quarter, probably means our first quarter will be a bit muted from an actual revenue crystallization perspective. And so we would anticipate revenue to accelerate through the year in 2026. But the government shutdown thought it's worth doesn't necessarily impact Voyager that significantly. The underlying demand drivers here, these national security growth drivers are not, if you were temporary. Obviously, with the geopolitical environment that we're in today, last quarter, we were talking about the impact potentially of the prolonged impact of the Ukraine war with Russia. Now we have the Iran conflict, et cetera. If anything, these things are just depleting our national security resources and Voyager is well positioned to replenish that. And it's not going to be a 6- or 12-month resupply mission. This is going to be a multiyear growth support driver for Voyager.

Yes. The only other thing I would say is that given the fact that we were shut down for half of the fourth quarter, right, 45 out of 90 days, the fact that we essentially hit our revenue target, I think, is a very good fact. And I think it shows not only the resilience but the diversification of the business. And again, exiting the year with record backlog, record pipeline, raising revenue guidance, all on the heels of a prolonged government shutdown, I think, is a very good fact.

And then on the NGI program, can you provide any color on next milestones or key watch points for NGI to hit its target for LRIP in late '26? Is there any facility or capacity expansions that are needed to hit your targets and kind of drive the strong growth that you're seeing there?

You want to take this, Phil?

Yes. No. So NGI, as we've said, we work very closely, obviously, with the prime Lockheed Martin there. Just case in point, we've continued to stay on time and stay on schedule from our perspective, irrespective of other potential supply chain issues. Ultimately, we will take that final order through the low rate production from the customer when it's ready. We do anticipate those orders to come here second half of this year as we move into low rate production next year. As far as the manufacturing capacity and investment, to be clear, we are investing in our -- in the Voyager American Defense Complex ahead of demand for golden dome opportunities. in excess or said incremental to next-generation Interceptor. We know that those opportunities are real. We're working very closely with other primes, not named Lockheed Martin as an example, on various -- through initiatives, various programs. And so that's the reason why we're making that investment. That said, we are well positioned through to scale on NGI when Lockheed is good and ready.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Sam Brandeis with Wedbush Securities.

Sam on for Dan Ives. Looking ahead to 2026, can you walk us through the 2 or 3 most critical growth drivers or milestones, whether contract awards, Starlab development targets, program execution gates that you would point to as the clearest proof points that Voyager's long-term thesis is well on track?

Well, we got a lot more than 3. I'll try to pick the biggest 3. I mean, I think a few things. One is continued delivery of our propulsion technology on programs like NGI. But I would say more specific to that would be being announced on additional programs of record, including Golden Dome programs, including legacy programs of record. I think evidence that we can hopefully talk about in the public domain here in the near term that would show that we're getting traction on additional programs, I think, would be a key indicator and validation point. And that would be -- and again, just to reemphasize, that would be in addition to the record backlog that we've already talked about. So this is all incremental. So I think that's one thing. Second key thing would be our ability to scale our production capacity because that's really what's going to set us up for a remarkable 2027 and 2028, both from a revenue growth perspective, but also from an operating leverage, EBITDA, free cash flow, all the things that we anticipate. And then the third thing I would say, which is relevant is the successful outcome of CLD Phase 2, which, of course, is the space station selection by NASA. And we anticipate that selection to happen within calendar year 2026, and we feel very good about our strategic position there. And then just to emphasize, we have ample liquidity, lots of dry powder on the balance sheet. We're seeing huge opportunities, not only for internal investment to drive growth, but also still on the acquisition side as well. So those would be 3 kind of pillars that I would put out there. And we have a lot more than just those 3, but I think those are 3 to keep an eye on.

Great. And you guys made 5 acquisitions in 2025. Where do you think are the remaining capability gaps in the portfolio? And when do you think the strategy shifts from capability filling to driving scale as the company further matures?

I think we've already made the pivot or shift to that second part. We are in scale mode for sure. I think on the capability side, there are a few areas that we're still interested in exploring. Anything in power and propulsion, we're going to continue to look at the value chain there. How do we go faster? How do we scale capability and production availability. We'll also be responsive to the needs of the customer as we have been with this critical chemicals and onshoring initiative that we talked about. On space exploration, I think the lunar environment is something that we're really keen on. There's a huge opportunity there with NASA's focus on going back to the moon and going back to the moon to stay. And we're very well positioned with our technology to be a major player in that domain as well. So I think those are 2 key areas. And then I think our acquisition pipeline is quite robust, and we're seeing a lot of opportunities there. I think one way to think about this might be geographic expansion as well that would lead to other customers around the world that would be non-U.S. based. I think that's a huge growth opportunity for the company. Nothing imminent there, but I think that's another area that we can scale our business. So those are some thoughts and happy to dive deeper with you on any of those points.

Thank you. Mr. Padva, I'd like to turn the conference back over to you.

Thank you very much. We'll now take a couple of questions from [ FEI Technology ]. First one, as Voyager seeks to grow content additional missile programs, how should we think about the incremental investment required to supply programs like PAC-3 or others, which have higher production rates relative to next-generation interceptor?

Yes. Well, thank you for the question. I really appreciate that. So a couple of ways to think about this. Our Voyager American Defense Complex, we're building that out in anticipation not only of addressing the record pipeline that we have, but scaling from there. So this would be existing programs of record, missile defense programs of record like PAC-3, like THAAD, like Trident, like others. But in addition to that, opportunities on things like Golden Dome, which haven't been announced publicly yet. So think of the American Defense Complex is setting the table for us to take advantage of all these demand signals that we're seeing. And we're confident with the investment that we're planning in 2026 for the Voyager ADC, we won't have additional incremental investment in order to capture these large pipeline and backlog opportunities that we see. So we feel very good about that.

The next question, given that NASA is expected to award the CLD Phase 2 later this year, what is Voyager's strategy in case NASA further delay the Phase 1 selection to '27, for example? And do you have any other financing to maintain the 2029 launch schedule without the federal funding?

Yes. Well, we don't anticipate a delay outside of calendar year 2026. There was a NASA authorization bill that just cleared the Senate Commerce Committee here recently, and it specifically says the RFP. I think it's within 60 days. So I don't anticipate the RFP pushing in or the selection pushing into 2027. The other thing about the Starlab joint venture model is it's fantastic from a Voyager perspective because there's a lot of capital flexibility in that model. So the cost structure itself -- well, first of all, the JV is actually raising third-party capital into the JV. So that's one key point. But the second key point is the way the joint venture is set up is a lot of the cost structure is in procurement and integration, and those things can be modulated and the time that those costs are spent can be chosen at our option as opposed to, let's say, some of the competitors have a very, very, very heavy run rate cost structure. And if there's a delay in procurement on their side, their cash burn is extremely high. Our model is different, and that gives us much more capital flexibility in our approach.

This concludes our question. I will hand it back to Dylan for closing remarks.

Well, thank you, everybody. We're super excited about our 2025, the record backlog that we have going into 2026, the growth opportunities we see in the company throughout all of our growth vectors, including power and propulsion, energetics, Space Solutions, Starlab and the like. So with that, I want to thank everybody for joining the call. Thanks for your interest in Voyager Technologies, and we look forward to speaking with you after we wrap up Q1. Thank you.

Thank you. This concludes today's Voyager Technologies Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.