Astrotech's FY2026 revenue fell 13% to $913K as TRACER 1000 sales dropped to 3 units from 8 and gross margin fell to 23.8%; the net loss widened to $14.4M as the company pivots to lunar initiatives and weighs selling 1st Detect.
Revenue
$913K
-13.0% YoY
Net income
-$14M
-4.2% YoY
Diluted EPS
$-8.49
-2.0% YoY
Operating margin
-1548.5%
Overview
Astrotech makes portable chemical-detection instruments, chiefly the TRACER 1000 explosives and narcotics detector sold by its 1st Detect subsidiary and, since this year, the EN-SCAN Labrador handheld gas chromatograph (a field device that separates and identifies chemical vapors on site). For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026, the business stayed tiny relative to its costs: revenue fell 13.0% to $913 thousand while the company lost $14.4 million, and the year ended with management pointing the company toward something very different — a set of "Lunar Initiatives" (Moon-based resource development, computing and semiconductor manufacturing) and a possible sale of 1st Detect.
The core fact for a reader: Astrotech spent about $16.50 in costs (cost of revenue plus operating expenses, $15.1 million in total) for every $1 of revenue it brought in, and it covered the gap by selling investments and issuing new shares.
Key figures
All amounts in thousands of US dollars unless noted; fiscal years end June 30.
Metric
FY2026
FY2025
YoY Change
Revenue
$913
$1,049
-13.0%
Product revenue
$610
$804
-24.1%
Grant revenue
$205
$115
+78.3%
Service revenue
$97
$130
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-25.4%
Gross margin
23.8%
45.3%
-21.5 pts
Research & development
$6,484
$8,142
-20.4%
Selling, general & administrative
$7,871
$7,067
+11.4%
Loss from operations
($14,138)
($14,734)
loss narrowed 4.0%
Operating margin
-1,548.5%
-1,404.6%
-143.9 pts
Net loss
($14,427)
($13,850)
loss widened 4.2%
Net loss per share (basic and diluted)
($8.49)
($8.32)
loss widened 2.0%
TRACER 1000 units sold
3
8
-5 units
Cash used in operations
($13,453)
($12,952)
+3.9% more cash used
Cash + short-term investments (June 30)
$11,334
$18,208
-37.8%
Gross margin is the share of revenue left after the direct cost of making and delivering the products. Operating margin is what's left after all operating costs, including R&D and overhead; at Astrotech's scale it is deeply negative, because revenue is a small fraction of expenses.
Revenue: five fewer detectors sold
The decline came almost entirely from hardware. The 10-K says product revenue fell $458 thousand because the company sold three TRACER 1000 units and one Labrador gas chromatograph in FY2026, versus eight TRACER 1000 units in FY2025. The prior year also included about $195 thousand of Department of Homeland Security grant-related revenue booked within product revenue that did not recur.
Partly offsetting that, consumables sales rose about $264 thousand, grant revenue about $90 thousand and training revenue about $28 thousand. Geographically, US revenue slipped to $686 thousand from $730 thousand and foreign revenue to $227 thousand from $319 thousand. Three customers accounted for a significant portion of total revenue, per the filing — with sales this small, a single order moves the annual number materially.
On the regulatory side, the TRACER 1000 gained ECAC/EU "G1" approval in May 2026 (the European aviation-security standard), and the company says it has begun the US TSA's checkpoint testing process. As of June 30, 2026, the TRACER 1000 was deployed in about 37 locations across 16 countries.
Margins: gross profit more than halved
Cost of revenue rose 21.3% to $696 thousand even as revenue fell, which the filing attributes to higher labor tied to grant-related activities and higher warranty expense. Gross profit dropped to $217 thousand from $475 thousand, and gross margin fell to 23.8% from 45.3%. Part of this is mix: grant work (revenue earned by performing funded development tasks) carries labor cost, while the instrument sales shrank.
Costs: R&D cut, overhead up
R&D fell $1.7 million (-20.4%), mainly from $1.4 million less spent on consultants, plus $436 thousand lower material and equipment costs and $200 thousand lower depreciation.
SG&A rose $804 thousand (+11.4%). The filing itemizes about $392 thousand of higher legal expense tied to the 2026 stock offerings, about $230 thousand of higher salary and severance (including a severance accrual for the former CFO), and about $181 thousand of higher facilities cost — mostly because FY2025 benefited from a one-time property-tax refund that made the prior-year comparison unusually low. Sales and marketing spending fell about $320 thousand.
Net effect: total operating expenses fell 5.6% to $14.4 million, so the operating loss narrowed by $596 thousand — but that improvement came from spending less on development, not from the business selling more.
Why the net loss still widened
Below the operating line, the picture reversed. Interest and dividend income fell $623 thousand to $471 thousand because the company had far less money invested, and it booked a $543 thousand realized loss on securities it sold (versus $5 thousand a year earlier). Total other income swung from +$886 thousand to -$285 thousand, which more than erased the operating improvement and pushed the net loss up 4.2% to $14.4 million. Per share, the loss rose to $8.49 from $8.32 on a slightly higher weighted-average share count (1.700 million vs. 1.665 million).
Balance sheet and funding
Astrotech ended the year with $8.4 million of cash and $2.9 million of short-term investments — $11.3 million in total, down from $18.2 million. Cash itself rose, but only because the company sold $12.7 million of investments and raised money from shareholders:
Operating activities consumed $13.5 million of cash, slightly more than FY2025's $13.0 million.
Under an at-the-market (ATM) program with H.C. Wainwright set up on June 2, 2026 — which lets the company sell new shares gradually into the market — it sold 168,980 shares during the fiscal year for about $6.7 million in net proceeds. Through September 23, 2026, cumulative ATM sales reached 258,856 shares and about $7.9 million in gross proceeds. The program was enlarged to $50 million in August 2026, and a separate $200 million shelf registration (advance SEC clearance to issue securities later) became effective July 7, 2026.
Inventory rose to about $4.1 million from $2.9 million, with finished goods climbing to $1.2 million from $0.3 million — product built but not yet sold, in a year when four instruments shipped.
The accumulated deficit — total losses since inception — stands at roughly $265 million.
Management states that current cash, together with operating cash flows, will fund operations for at least the next 12 months, but also that "current available funds are insufficient to complete our business plan and strategic objectives," and that it expects expenses to rise as it pursues the Lunar Initiatives.
Takeaway: The instrument business is not self-funding and shrank this year — four instruments sold, gross margin nearly halved, $13.5 million of cash burned — while management has shifted its stated strategy toward capital-intensive Moon-based projects that have no revenue and have not yet demonstrated technical feasibility, per the filing's own risk factors. The company is paying for both by issuing new shares (about $7.9 million of ATM sales so far, with room for up to $50 million), which dilutes existing shareholders.
Strategic shift and outlook
The filing records three strategic moves that matter more than this year's operating results:
Strategic alternatives review (November 2025): Astrotech is exploring options including equity raises, reverse mergers, combinations, or a sale of all or part of the business, with no deadline set.
Lunar Initiatives (announced May 27, 2026): the board approved a plan to evaluate lunar resource development, autonomous lunar industrial infrastructure, and Moon-based computing and semiconductor manufacturing. The 10-K's risk factors say these initiatives remain in the "explorative planning and design stage," have generated no revenue, and will require substantial capital; they name SpaceX, Blue Origin and Intuitive Machines as far better-resourced competitors.
Possible sale of 1st Detect (June 2026): the board authorized management to pursue a sale of the TRACER 1000 business, explicitly to provide capital for the new initiatives.
Management gave no revenue or earnings guidance. Our read: the detection business's near-term numbers depend on lumpy, few-unit orders and on regulatory milestones such as TSA checkpoint certification, and if 1st Detect is sold, much of today's revenue base could go with it. What to watch in the coming quarters: the cash burn rate, the pace of ATM share issuance (and therefore dilution), whether a 1st Detect sale is announced and at what price, and whether the lunar effort produces anything more concrete than planning — such as a government contract or award, which the filing says is not assured.