Aerospace Sector

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>>> Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT), a security and aerospace company, engages in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of technology systems, products, and services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control, Rotary and Mission Systems, and Space. The Aeronautics segment offers combat and air mobility aircraft, unmanned air vehicles, and related technologies. The Missiles and Fire Control segment provides air and missile defense systems; tactical missiles and air-to-ground precision strike weapon systems; logistics; fire control systems; mission operations support, readiness, engineering support, and integration services; manned and unmanned ground vehicles; and energy management solutions. The Rotary and Mission Systems segment offers military and commercial helicopters, surface ships, sea and land-based missile defense systems, radar systems, sea and air-based mission and combat systems, command and control mission solutions, cyber solutions, and simulation and training solutions. The Space segment offers satellites; space transportation systems; strategic, advanced strike, and defensive missile systems; and classified systems and services in support of national security systems. This segment also provides network-enabled situational awareness and integrates space and ground-based systems to help its customers gather, analyze, and securely distribute critical intelligence data. It serves primarily serves the U.S. government, as well as foreign military sales contracted through the U.S. government. Lockheed Martin Corporation was founded in 1912 and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland.

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>>> Scientists Found Genetic Mutations in Every Astronaut Blood Sample They Studied


Futurism

by Victor Tangermann

Sep 6, 2022


https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health-news/scientists-found-genetic-mutations-in-every-astronaut-blood-sample-they-studied/ar-AA11x5hm


When they examined decades-old blood samples from 14 NASA astronauts who flew Space Shuttle missions between 1998 and 2001, researchers found that samples from all 14 astronauts showed mutations in their DNA.

While these mutations are likely low enough not to represent a serious threat to the astronauts' long term health, the research underlines the importance of regular health screenings for astronauts, especially as they embark on longer missions to the Moon and beyond in coming years.

The specific mutations, as identified in a new study published in the journal Nature Communications Biology, were marked by a high proportion of blood cells that came from a single clone, a phenomenon called clonal hematopoiesis.

Mutations like this can be caused by exposure to excess ultraviolet radiation, and other forms of radiation including chemotherapy.

In this case, researchers are suspicious that the mutations may have been the result of space radiation.

"Astronauts work in an extreme environment where many factors can result in somatic mutations, most importantly space radiation, which means there is a risk that these mutations could develop into clonal hematopoiesis," said lead author David Goukassian, professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in a statement.

The topic of astronaut health is more pertinent than ever before. Just last year, NASA proposed to change the radiation limits its astronauts can be exposed to to protect their health.

In short, the agency is trying to allow younger astronauts to be exposed to relatively higher amounts of radiation than older astronauts, and eliminating the differences in limits between men and women.

The blood samples for this latest study were collected from 12 male and two female astronauts ten days before their flight and on the day of their landing. The samples were then cryogenically stored at -112 degrees Fahrenheit for around two decades.

The mutations observed in the blood samples resemble the kind of somatic mutations we see in older individuals — which is interesting on its own, considering the median age of the astronauts was only 42.

"Although the clonal hematopoiesis we observed was of a relatively small size, the fact that we observed these mutations was surprising given the relatively young age and health of these astronauts," Goukassian said.

"The presence of these mutations does not necessarily mean that the astronauts will develop cardiovascular disease or cancer," he added, "but there is the risk that, over time, this could happen through ongoing and prolonged exposure to the extreme environment of deep space."

Therefore, Goukassian and his team are recommending that NASA should regularly screen astronauts for these kinds of mutations.

Scientists have long speculated about the numerous health risks astronauts face when spending extended periods of time in outer space — and the more we discover, the better we can ensure their safety in the long run.

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>>> Notable Passenger Drone Companies


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_drone


Ehang is a Chinese company that has developed numerous drones including passenger plane Ehang 184. EHang 184 was their first model, it was developed as an eight dual rotor wing blade drone that can carry two passengers.[11] The model was retired in 2020 and is replaced by the Ehang 216. Ehang also released a one passenger drone, Ehang 116.[12] Ehang in 2021 unveiled the model VT-30. VT-30 is designed to have eight dual rotor wing blades to complement its fixed wing platform.[13]

Flyastro, a Texas-based drone company, developed the Astro ALTA, with two and four person passenger models.[14] Company is known for being the first to develop a solar powered airplane.[15] The development team initially began with the model, Elroy. It was a two passenger drone with similar design to the ATLA.[16] Once flight was achieved, the model Astro Atla began development.

Joby Aviation is a California based company that has developed a five passenger drone. With one seat for the pilot. The company expects to complete its FAA certification process 2022. Joby in 2020 acquired a 75 million dollar investment from service provider Uber Technologies Inc., leading to Uber Elevate and Expands partnership.[17]

Archer is California-based company that has developed a two passenger model called Maker.[18] It has fixed wings with twelve rotor wings. Archer is in development for a five person model.[19] United Airlines has partnered with Archer for commercial sale of the model, Maker. Maker is expected to be released within Los Angeles and Miami by 2024.[20]

City Airbus, is a drone project developed by Airbus, a European multinational aerospace company, based in the Netherlands. City Airbus has developed a four- person passenger drone with fixed wings that include rotor wing blades. Its expected certification for public flight is in 2025.[21]

Boeing, an American multinational aviation corporation is developing a passenger drone model called the passenger air vehicle (PAV). The model is a fixed wing with eight rotor blade wings attached onto a platform underneath the base structure. This model can hold two passengers and still is in development.[22]

Volocopter is a German aircraft manufacturer that is developing a passenger drone called, Volocity. The model consist of eighteen rotor wings above the cockpit on a circular ring.[23] Japan Airlines, an investor of Volocopter plans to have public test in Japan as early as 2023.[24]

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>>> Meet the ‘Dream Chaser,’ the Supersonic Space Craft Taking on Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic


Robb Report

by Michael Verdon

June 2022


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/meet-the-dream-chaser-the-supersonic-space-craft-taking-on-blue-origin-and-virgin-galactic/ar-AAYMZlL?li=BBnb7Kz


Will the supersonic Dream Chaser soon be competing with Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin in the space-tourism race? That’s the plan—eventually.








Sierra Space is developing the Dream Chaser as the world’s “first and only winged commercial spaceplane.” The aircraft is designed to take off atop a rocket, and then return to Earth on its own wings, landing itself much as the original space shuttle designs.

The company said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Spaceport America to use its 12,000-foot runway in southern New Mexico. Sierra said it’s growing the list of compatible sites where the Dream Chaser can land, including the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as well as airports in Alabama, Japan and Spaceport Cornwall in the UK.

The spaceplane will serve as cargo transport to the ISS, and then eventually transport astronauts and tourists to a private space station.

The Dream Chaser is based on a NASA design concept called the HL-20 from around 1990. During a 2013 test, the craft failed to deploy part of its landing gear and skidded across the runway. The company has since focused on a cargo version, which is scheduled to fly seven missions to deliver 12,000 pounds of supplies to the ISS beginning in 2023.

But Sierra said it has always planned a “multi-mission” version that will carry three to seven astronauts. The crewed version would be ready by 2025, according to the company.

The announcement about the partnership with Spaceport America is part of Sierra’s plans to build a global network that would allow “high-value payloads” to be delivered.

“We are creating space-tech hubs within the commercial space ecosystem and adding Spaceport America as a prospective landing site for Dream Chaser to continue to open up affordable access to space for all,” said Tom Vice Sierra Space CEO, in announcing the agreement.

Spaceport America has 6,000 square miles of restricted airspace, a 12,000-foot by 200-foot runway, and vertical launch complexes. Virgin Galactic launched its first Unity22 mission there last year.

The company also announced a new facility to train private astronauts.

Sierra Space also announced plans to open the first commercial human spaceflight center and astronaut training academy. Dr. Janet Kavindi, a veteran NASA astronaut, will lead the new facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Kavindi foresees different astronauts being trained at the facility, including career astronauts who will spend months in space and “experiential” astronauts, or private citizens, who want to visit Orbital Reef, which is being designed as the world’s first private space station.

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>>> China plans to complete space station with latest mission yesterday


AP News

https://apnews.com/article/space-launches-technology-science-china-c0ac9a948f9f48252747a77f7ec4685d


BEIJING (AP) — China is preparing to launch a new three-person mission to complete work on its permanent orbiting space station, the China Manned Space Agency said Saturday.

The Shenzhou 14 crew will spend six months on the Tiangong station, during which they will oversee the addition of two laboratory modules to join the main Tianhe living space that was launched in April 2021.

Their spaceship is due to blast off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert at 10:44 a.m. Sunday (0244 GMT), the agency said. The crewed space flight program’s workhorse Long March 2F rocket will provide propulsion.

Commander Chen Dong and fellow astronauts Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe will assemble the three-module structure joining the existing Tianhe with Wentian and Mengtian, due to arrive in July and October. Another cargo craft, the Tianzhou-3, remains docked with the station.

The arrival of the new modules will “provide more stability, more powerful functions, more complete equipment,” said Chen, 43, who was a member of the Shenzhou 11 mission in 2016.

Liu, 43, is also a space veteran and was China’s first female astronaut to reach space aboard the Shenzhou 9 mission in 2012. Cai, 46, is making his first space trip.

SPACE LAUNCHES

Russia's supply ship arrives at International Space Station

Mexican-born engineer pushing for more diversity in space

Lawsuit seeks to revoke FAA license for Georgia spaceport

Boeing crew capsule launches to space station on test redo


China’s space program launched its first astronaut into orbit in 2003, making it only the third country to do so on its own after the former Soviet Union and the U.S.

It has landed robot rovers on the moon and placed one on Mars last year. China has also returned lunar samples and officials have discussed a possible crewed mission to the moon.

China’s space program is run by the ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, prompting the U.S. to exclude it from the International Space Station.

Chen, Liu and Cai will be joined at the end of their mission for three to five days by the crew of the upcoming Shenzhou 15, marking the first time the station will have had six people aboard.

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>>> GE Stock A Buy? General Electric Reaffirms 2022 Financial Outlook Ahead Of 3-Way Split


Investor's Business Daily

by APARNA NARAYANAN

04/06/2022


https://www.investors.com/research/ge-stock-buy-or-sell/?src=A00220


General Electric (GE) is seeing end markets and cash flow improve as it transforms into an aviation pure play. But supply disruptions and rising inflation pose risks to aviation's recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Is GE stock a buy right now?

On March 10, General Electric reaffirmed 2022 financial guidance along with longer-term profit and cash generation targets. GE also discussed its planned split into three separate, publicly traded companies.

On Jan. 25, GE delivered mixed earnings for its most recent quarter. Its key jet-engine aviation business continues to recover while managing impact from the Covid-19 omicron variant, CEO Larry Culp said.

GE Stock Technical Analysis

Shares failed a brief Nov. 9 breakout past 115.30 and there's no new buy point so far. GE stock remains below a falling 10-week moving average, which has undercut its longer-term, 40-week counterpart. Those are both technical negatives.

Shares broke out in November on news of GE's three-way split, but have tumbled since.

The relative strength line for GE stock has fallen sharply since last March, according to MarketSmith charts. It rallied for parts of 2020 and 2021 on hopes for GE's turnaround. A rising RS line means that a stock is outperforming the S&P 500 index. It is the blue line in the chart shown.

The industrial giant earns a dull IBD Composite Rating of 50 out of 99. The rating combines key technical and fundamental metrics in a single score.

General Electric owns an RS Rating of 35, meaning it has outperformed 35% of all stocks over the past year. The Accumulation/Distribution Rating is a D-, on a scale of A+ to a worst E. It's a sign of considerable selling of GE shares by big institutions over the past 13 weeks.

GE remains a popular stock with strong institutional support. As of December, 1,832 funds owned shares. GE stock shows zero quarters of rising fund ownership, according to the IBD Stock Checkup tool.

GE Earnings And Fundamental Analysis

On key earnings and sales metrics, GE stock earns an EPS Rating of 57 out of a best-possible 99, and an SMR Rating of D, on a scale of A+ (best) to E (worst). The EPS Rating compares a company's earnings per share growth vs. all other companies, and its SMR Rating reflects sales growth, profit margins and return on equity.

In recent years, GE shed a biotech unit, its light bulb business, and a majority stake in its oil field services business. It's merging its aircraft-leasing unit with AerCap (AER). Eventually, it's expected to exit jet leasing altogether.

On Jan. 25, GE posted earnings of 92 cents a share for the December quarter, beating views. Amid supply-chain issues, revenue fell 7% and missed. During the quarter, GE's aviation business grew sales 4% vs. a year earlier, while health care was down 4%, renewable energy was down 5% and power was down 10%. And the company recorded industrial free cash flow (FCF) of $3.7 billion for the quarter, and $5.8 billion for the full year.

But GE gave a weaker-than-expected 2022 EPS outlook, citing inflationary costs. It expects revenue and FCF to further improve.

The FCF measure is closely watched as a sign of the health of GE's operations and its ability to pay down debts. In 2020, GE generated $606 million in FCF, down 66%, but beating its own guidance. In fact, General Electric turned cash-positive a year ahead of schedule.

For 2022, analysts forecast GE earnings to vault 99% as sales rebound 4%. But General Electric is likely to surpass 2019 EPS of $5.20 only next year, FactSet says. In 2023, GE earnings are likely to rise a further 64% as sales grow 9%.

Out of 22 analysts on Wall Street, 15 rate GE stock a buy and seven have a hold, while no one has a sell, according to FactSet.

Big GE Split Caps Long Restructuring

In 2024, GE will emerge as an aviation-focused company after a three-way breakup. The American industrial icon plans to spin off its lower-growth health and energy businesses to focus on aviation.

The three-way GE split caps years of dwindling profits and a costly restructuring. It closes a key chapter in General Electric's 129-year-old history, with roots going back to Thomas Edison.

"Our contrarian bull case is that GE is not in 'deal purgatory,'" RBC Capital Markets analyst Deane Draywrote in a March 6 note. In fact, he thinks a faster separation timeline and additional divestitures could give shares a boost. The analyst has an outperform rating and 113 price target on GE stock.

Headwinds For GE Aviation

Aviation — GE's "crown jewel" — makes jet engines for plane makers including Boeing (BA) and Airbus (EADSY). GE Aviation also runs a lucrative aftermarket business for engine repair and maintenance.

In 2020, Boeing halted production of the 737 Max jet for a few months after two fatal flights, which weighed on Leap engine sales. On top of that, airlines parked planes and delayed or canceled orders due to the pandemic. Engine shop visits slowed while leasing customers sought short-term deferrals. As a result, GE Aviation slashed jobs by 25% and later warned of more cuts.

Many of those headwinds have lifted. Meanwhile, the market continues to shift from wide-bodies to longer-range, narrow-body aircraft, benefiting General Electric. A GE joint venture dominates the market for narrow-body jet engines.

GE sees the aviation recovery continuing in 2022. But it's monitoring newer Covid-19 variants.

During the pandemic, travel restrictions to halt the spread of Covid-19 negatively affected aircraft deliveries and orders.

Also amid the pandemic, some commercial aerospace suppliers struggled to deliver parts and equipment on time, due to shortages of semiconductor chips and plastics. Costs of aluminum and steel also rose. Those woes could persist in 2022, according to Fitch Ratings.

Growing Momentum For GE Stock

CEO Culp's top priority is improving General Electric's financial position, while strengthening GE's industrial core, as a maker of jet engines, gas turbines, wind turbines and hospital equipment.

In 2017, GE began a vast and costly restructuring. Poorly timed acquisitions and some execution missteps caused debt to balloon and GE earnings and cash to crumble.

But GE now touts recovery or stabilization in key business segments, including aviation and gas power.

Meanwhile, General Electric settled certain SEC investigations, while slashing billions in costs and debts. Those moves helped to remove legal and financial overhangs, de-risking GE stock.

As GE's financial condition improves, hopes for the dividend could follow. In December 2018, a cash-challenged General Electric slashed the quarterly dividend to a token penny a share. An earlier cut, announced in November 2017 along with a broad restructuring, had halved the dividend to 12 cents.

The cuts rattled investors, who prized GE stock for its long and reliable history of paying dividends. After a reverse stock split in August, GE stock now offers a 32-cent annual payout, yielding 0.4%.

Rivals To General Electric

Rivals to General Electric include Raytheon Technologies (RTX) and Siemens Energy.

Raytheon and Rolls-Royce of Britain are major jet-engine rivals. Siemens Energy competes with GE in power. It emerged in September after Siemens (SIEGY) spun off its low-margin gas turbine business. Japan's Mitsubishi Hitachi is another big power rival.

The diversified operations group ranks No. 31 out of 197 industry groups tracked by IBD. It includes 3M (MMM), Honeywell (HON) and Roper Technologies (ROP).

Is GE Stock A Buy Now?

General Electric continues to make progress in its long, ambitious turnaround. GE earnings, sales and cash flow are expected to further improve in 2022, as the airline industry and broader economy slowly recover from the pandemic.

Moreover, General Electric's poised for a huge transformation, breaking from its diversified past to focus on aviation. New Covid-19 variants could threaten the commercial aviation recovery.

Many analysts on Wall Street are bullish about GE's current leadership and improving fundamentals. But others remain on the sidelines. And GE belongs to an industry group that is acting relatively well.

From a technical perspective, GE stock sits below key support levels after a failed breakout attempt. It has no current buy point and the RS line shows significant lag.

Bottom line: GE stock is not a buy.

Over the long term, buying an index fund, such as SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), would have delivered safer, higher returns than GE stock. If you want to invest in a large-cap stock, IBD offers several strong ideas here.

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>>> Geomagnetic Storm Dooms 40 Starlink Internet Satellites


Zero Hedge

BY TYLER DURDEN

FEB 09, 2022


https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/40-spacex-satellites-hit-geomagnetic-storm-expected-fall-back-toward-earth-and-burn


Elon Musk's satellite internet service Starlink experienced a devastating space-weather impact last Friday when a geomagnetic storm forced "dozens" of newly launched low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites into "safe-mode" where they experienced "deorbiting" and will or already have crashed back to Earth, according to a SpaceX blog post.

"Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday. These storms cause the atmosphere to warm and atmospheric density at our low deployment altitudes to increase.

In fact, onboard GPS suggests the escalation speed and severity of the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50 percent higher than during previous launches. The Starlink team commanded the satellites into a safe-mode where they would fly edge-on (like a sheet of paper) to minimize drag—to effectively "take cover from the storm"—and continued to work closely with the Space Force's 18th Space Control Squadron and LeoLabs to provide updates on the satellites based on ground radars.

Preliminary analysis show the increased drag at the low altitudes prevented the satellites from leaving safe-mode to begin orbit raising maneuvers, and up to 40 of the satellites will reenter or already have reentered the Earth's atmosphere," the blog post said.

SpaceX said the "deorbiting satellites pose zero collision risk" with other satellites and are designed to burn up in the atmosphere upon "reentry" to mitigate satellite parts from striking objects on the ground.

After last week's launch, it's expected that up to 40 of the 49 LEO satellites will be lost. The image below is the satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket before being detached in LEO.

SpaceWeather shows the strength of the geomagnetic storm last Friday.

Possible reentries of the satellites were caught on camera over Puerto Rico late last week.

The purpose of the satellites was initially to help with Musk's Starlink project, which aims to give internet from space to people in rural communities. There was no mention if the loss would affect future service for customers at certain latitudes.

Jacob Geer, the UK Space Agency's Head of Space Surveillance, said: "Events like this are a reminder that space is challenging - getting satellites or astronauts into orbit is still not easy."

Starlink could experience more space weather events during future launches as Sunspot Cycle 25 began in 2H20. This current cycle is expected to be super active and may pose a risk to satellites.

Surely Musk and his space companies are following the space weather developments to avoid future mishaps.

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>>> EarthNow


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EarthNow


EarthNow is a Seattle-based startup company aiming to blanket the Earth with live satellite video coverage, initially aiming to provide services to governments and large-enterprise customers.[1]

The company was founded in 2017[2] and has backers including Bill Gates, Intellectual Ventures, Airbus, SoftBank and OneWeb founder Greg Wyler.[1]

The satellite network is to be deployed as a constellation of dozens of 230 kilograms (500 lb) satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO).[citation needed]

Manufacturing is expected to be done in Florida.[3]

The intent is to provide a "'live and unfiltered' video stream that will be used to monitor illegal fishing, detect natural disasters," monitor migrating whales, observing war zones, on-demand data on crop health,[3] and whatever uses people put on them.

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>>> How many satellites are orbiting Earth?


Space.com

By Supriya Chakrabarti

September 25, 2021


https://www.space.com/how-many-satellites-are-orbiting-earth


It seems like every week, another rocket is launched into space carrying rovers to Mars, tourists or, most commonly, satellites. The idea that "space is getting crowded" has been around for a few years now, but just how crowded is it? And how crowded is it going to get?

I am a professor of physics and director of the Center for Space Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Many satellites that were put into orbit have gone dead and burned up in the atmosphere, but thousands remain. Groups that track satellite launches don’t always report the same exact numbers, but the overall trend is clear — and astounding.

Number of satellites orbiting Earth -- 7941

Since the Soviet Union launched Sputnik — the first human-made satellite — in 1957, humanity has steadily been putting more and more objects into orbit every year. Over the the second half of the 20th century, there was a slow but steady growth, with roughly 60 to 100 satellites launched yearly until the early 2010s.

But since then, the pace has been increasing dramatically.

By 2020, 114 launches carried around 1,300 satellites to space, surpassing the 1,000 new satellites per year mark for the first time. But no year in the past compares to 2021. As of Sept. 16, roughly 1,400 new satellites have already begun circling the Earth, and that will only increase as the year goes on. Just this month, SpaceX deployed another 51 Starlink satellites into orbit.

Small satellites, easy access to orbit

There are two main reasons for this exponential growth. First, it has never been easier to get a satellite into space. For example, on Aug. 29, 2021, a SpaceX rocket carried several satellites — including one built by my students — to the International Space Station. On Oct. 11, 2021, these satellites will deploy into orbit, and the number of satellites will increase again.

The second reason is that rockets can carry more satellites more easily — and cheaply — than ever before. This increase isn’t due to rockets getting more powerful. Rather, satellites have gotten smaller thanks to the electronics revolution. The vast majority — 94% — of all spacecraft launched in 2020 were smallsats — satellites that weigh less than around 1,320 pounds (600 kilograms).

The majority of these satellites are used for observing Earth or for communications and internet. With a goal of bringing the internet to underserved areas of the globe, two private companies, Starlink by SpaceX and OneWeb together launched almost 1,000 smallsats in 2020 alone. They are each planning to launch more than 40,000 satellites in the coming years to create what are called “mega-constellations” in low-Earth orbit.

Several other companies are eyeing this US$1 trillion market, most notably Amazon with its Project Kuiper.

A crowded sky

With the huge growth in satellites, fears of a crowded sky are starting to come true. A day after SpaceX launched its first 60 Starlink satellites, astronomers began to see them blocking out the stars. While the impact on visible astronomy is easy to understand, radio astronomers fear they may lose 70% sensitivity in certain frequencies due to interference from satellite megaconstellations like Starlink.

Experts have been studying and discussing the potential problems posed by these constellations and ways the satellite companies could address them . These include reducing the number and brightness of satellites, sharing their location and supporting better image-processing software.

As low-Earth orbit gets crowded, concern about space debris increases, as does a real possibility of collisions.

Future trends

Less than 10 years ago, the democratization of space was a goal yet to be realized. Now, with student projects on the space station and more than 105 countries having at least one satellite in space, one could argue that that goal is within reach.

Every disruptive technological advancement requires updates to the rules – or the creation of new ones. SpaceX has tested ways to lower the impact of Starlink constellations, and Amazon has disclosed plans to deorbit their satellites within 355 days after mission completion. These and other actions by different stakeholders make me hopeful that commerce, science and human endeavors will find sustainable solutions to this potential crisis.

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>>> Why 5G fight has no quick fix for AT&T, Verizon as aviation jitters grow


Yahoo Finance

Mike Juang·Producer

January 19, 2022


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-the-5-g-fight-has-no-quick-fix-for-att-verizon-and-jittery-aviation-sector-010434108.html


AT&T (T) and Verizon agreed to delay the rollout of 5G frequency near some airports and aviation infrastructure, but a permanent fix still eludes all of the major players – including the government and airlines worried about the impact on flight technology.

On Tuesday, AT&T and Verizon (VZ) announced they would limit or delay the rollout of ‘C-band’ service near U.S. airports, extending a previously agreed delay from Verizon and AT&T that was set to expire.

Previously, the telecoms had agreed to delay the launch of the newer, faster cellular service for two weeks in order to address regulatory and industry questions. Air carriers have raised concerns about 5G affecting passenger flights, a few of which have already been delayed or canceled.

According to former FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, Tuesday's deal mitigates, but does not eliminate, some of the immediate concerns that have created a standoff between the aviation industry and telecom giants that have spent tens of billions to acquire the spectrum bandwidth, and the necessary technology to make it all work for subscribers.

“The telecom companies and the airlines are cutting the middle here,” Huerta told Yahoo Finance Live on Tuesday.

He argued a solution could come from changes to how the new 5G frequency is deployed near airports, and a continued refresh of the technology aboard aircraft. However, that will require communication across both industries, Huerta added.

Not just planes

In a statement, President Joe Biden said the agreement would ensure air safety without disrupting air travel and allow for 90% of 5G wireless towers to be deployed. He vowed to engage with stakeholders to “close the remaining gap and reach a permanent, workable solution around these key airports,” but worries remain as 5G is rolled out elsewhere.

“It's actually more of an issue for helicopters if you consider the fact that we're flying much lower, in urban environments and in places where we're likely to see 5G towers come out first,” according to John Shea, director of government affairs at the Helicopter Association International.

Shea told Yahoo Finance that it’s possible frequency interference could cause trouble for flights over urban areas, like those commonly undertaken by medical and rescue helicopters.

The aviation industry, known for tight safety regulation, is not counting on equipment refreshes. “We’re looking at being years away from having a 5G-resistant radio altimeter,” said Shea. He added that the variety of equipment, 5G towers, and airplane configurations all make matters worse.

“The aircraft varies and the radio altimeter varies, and a simple [fix] will not work in most circumstances,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the aviation industry is worried that the new frequency band may interfere with equipment that help determine an aircraft’s height and aid pilots in visibility and throttle control, among other systems.

The frequency in which ‘C-band’ operates is adjacent to the frequencies commonly used by aircraft altimeters to measure altitude, M. Cenk Gursoy, professor in electrical engineering and computer science at Syracuse University, explained to Yahoo Finance.

Altimeters send signals to the ground and measure how long it takes for the signal to return, which could see interference from ‘C-band’ transmissions.

Telecom carriers have turned to the new frequency to alleviate some problems with existing 5G technology. Currently, 5G coverage suffers from poor range and coverage, or sees speeds and capacity not noticeably better than 4G networks. Carriers say the move to a dedicated data frequency will alleviate most of these problems.

The ‘C-band’ frequency was previously used for satellite transmissions by broadcasters before it was auctioned off by the FCC to U.S. telecom operators AT&T and Verizon early last year. T-Mobile has sidestepped this issue since its 5G service operates on a different frequency.

But Gursoy explained ‘C-band’ use was previously not as concerning to the aviation industry because of its niche applications and use at locations typically not close to air traffic.

“The major thing is widespread deployment of base stations close to airports that might lead to harmful interference,” he told Yahoo Finance.

Aviation industry advocates admit some of the confusion comes from a lack of communication. “As I understand it, the telecoms were under the impression that the spectrum was free of interference,” Huerta said. “Clearly some communication that needed to take place then did not take place.”

Huerta pointed to other countries that have solved the issue by making a detailed analysis of where towers with the new frequency are located, and scrutinizing how it might interact with airport systems.

“This is something that requires a great deal of collaboration at the governmental level,” Huerta said, insisting there was a middle ground. “It just requires everyone working together.”

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>>> How 5G Clashed With an Aviation Device Invented in the 1920s


New York Times

by Stephen Gandel

1-20-22


https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/how-5g-clashed-with-an-aviation-device-invented-in-the-1920s/ar-AASWL8Z?li=BBnb7Kz


Airlines warned this week that potential interference from 5G technology could cause a crucial device on planes to malfunction.

A technological innovation that helped pilots fly fighter planes during World War II is now at the heart of the dispute between airlines and AT&T and Verizon over 5G, an innovative service meant to speed up mobile devices.

The clash has been years in the making and came to a head in the last few weeks. AT&T and Verizon agreed on Tuesday to restrict 5G near airports after airlines warned that potential interference from it could cause a crucial device on planes to malfunction, and force them to cancel flights. Even with the airport restriction, a number of international airlines on Tuesday canceled flights to the United States, though some of those flights were restored.

The instrument in question is a radio altimeter. It was first developed in the 1920s but still plays a crucial role in planes, helping pilots determine a jet’s altitude and its distance from other objects. In some planes, altimeter readings are fed directly into automated systems that can act without input from pilots. As aviation experts describe it, the 5G system used by AT&T and Verizon works in similar frequencies to the ones used by altimeters.

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>>> US airlines warn C-Band 5G could cause 'catastrophic disruption'


yahoo Finance

by Igor Bonifacic

January 17, 2022


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-airlines-warning-letter-211919932.html


The airline industry claims a “catastrophic” event could unfold on Wednesday when AT&T and Verizon activate their new C-Band 5G networks. In a letter obtained by Reuters, the CEOs of several prominent passenger and cargo airlines, including Delta, United and Southwest, warn interference from 5G cell towers could affect the sensitive safety equipment on their planes.

"Unless our major hubs are cleared to fly, the vast majority of the traveling and shipping public will essentially be grounded," they state in the letter, which was sent to the heads of the White House Economic Council, Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communications Commission, as well as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. "Immediate intervention is needed to avoid significant operational disruption to air passengers, shippers, supply chain and delivery of needed medical supplies."

The airlines have asked that AT&T and Verizon not offer 5G service within 2 miles of some of the country’s busiest and most vital airports. They’re also urging the federal government to ensure “5G is deployed except when towers are too close to airport runways until the FAA can determine how that can be safely accomplished without catastrophic disruption." The agency established 5G buffer zones at 50 airports on January 7th.

The letter is the latest development in the ongoing back and forth between the airline and wireless industries. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon spent nearly $80 billion at the start of 2021 to secure the repurposed C-Band spectrum the FCC had put up for auction. In November, AT&T and Verizon agreed to delay their C-Band rollouts to January 5th to help the FAA address any interference concerns. They later proposed limiting the power output of cell towers close to airports and agreed to a further two-week delay on January 4th.

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>>> AT&T and Verizon will delay 5G expansion over aircraft interference concerns


Engadget

by Mariella Moon

January 4, 2022


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/att-verizon-delay-5g-expansion-061847173.html


AT&T and Verizon won't start rolling out their C-band 5G service on January 5th after all. The carriers have agreed to comply with a request from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Department to push back their 5G expansion by two more weeks. Authorities asked the companies for extra time to investigate concerns regarding possible interference with aircraft systems and electronics.

Both AT&T and Verizon were supposed to to roll out their potentially faster C-band service using newly purchased frequencies back in December, but they held off on the expansion as requested by the Federal Aviation Administration. Airlines and aircraft manufacturers are worried that the new frequencies are too close to those used by airplanes' radar altimeter, which provides data on the distance between the plane and the ground. Interferences could then lead to unsafe landings. Wireless industry giants argue, however, that the C-band service's powers are low enough and that the gap in frequencies is large enough to prevent interference.

Shortly before the supposed January 5th rollout, the agencies asked the carriers for a delay of two more weeks to look into the issue. They initially rejected the authorities' call for an additional delay, issuing a joint letter that says honoring the request would be to the "detriment" of customers. The carriers tried to negotiate a compromise instead and told authorities that they're open to a six-month pause in deployment near some airports.

It's unclear what changed the companies' minds, but both have agreed to put a pause on their plans for now.

A Verizon spokesperson told Engadget in a statement:

"We've agreed to a two-week delay which promises the certainty of bringing this nation our game-changing 5G network in January, delivered over America’s best and most reliable wireless network."

An AT&T spokesperson sent us a similar response:

"At Secretary Buttigieg's request, we have voluntarily agreed to one additional two-week delay of our deployment of C-Band 5G services. We also remain committed to the six-month protection zone mitigations we outlined in our letter. We know aviation safety and 5G can co-exist and we are confident further collaboration and technical assessment will allay any issues."

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>>> Mach 5 Missiles Spur New Arms Race as U.S. Seeks to Match China

Push underway to ready systems quickly with more tests in 2022


Bloomberg

By Ryan Beene

December 28, 2021


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-28/the-u-s-is-behind-china-on-hypersonic-weapons-and-billions-are-at-stake


Top U.S. defense contractors are competing for billions of dollars of work tied to the next big technology focus in national-security circles: hypersonic weapons.

The military’s renewed interest in ultra-high-speed missiles -- spurred by concern that the U.S. is lagging behind Russia and China -- opens the door to lucrative contracts that could last decades. That may provide a much-needed boon for manufacturers seeking to capitalize on growth segments as the Biden administration keeps overall defense outlays in check.

The industry is developing an array of the super-high speed armaments for the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force, with the aim of being able to launch them from planes, submarines and trucks. Lockheed Martin Corp. has the leading position in key programs that aim to deliver prototypes the soonest -- with flight tests on a new missile slated for the first half of next year. Raytheon Technologies Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. are also seeking to get a toehold in the market for missiles that fly at more than five times the speed of sound.

“It’s all about making sure that we have more and more capability and classes of capability in hypersonic weapons,” said Jay Pitman, the vice president of air dominance and strike weapons at Lockheed’s missiles and fire control division. “That will enhance the strategic deterrence that we are able to provide.”

Pentagon officials recently estimated that Army and Navy programs that share a common missile may alone add a combined $28.5 billion to the services’ budgets over the coming years.

Critics question the price tag, technical feasibility and battlefield utility of the new class of military hardware. The Union of Concerned Scientists has cast doubt on claims that the weapons offer better performance than existing ballistic missiles and has warned of a destabilizing global arms race.

The pursuit of the weapons by strategic rivals in some ways evokes the tensions of the Cold War, when fears abounded that a conflict between the U.S. and Soviet Union could bring about global annihilation via nuclear missiles. It also was a lucrative epoch for defense contractors.

But just how much hypersonic weapons will alter the global balance of power remains a matter of debate. Some observers see a risk that the weapons’ high speed and unpredictable flight paths could lead to miscalculations that may escalate conflicts, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Others argue that hypersonic weapons do little to alter the dynamic between the U.S., Russia and China, because the countries already have enough nuclear missiles to overwhelm an enemy’s defenses, the group said.

Better Than Ballistic

Flying at speeds topping 3,800 miles (6,100 kilometers) per hour is nothing new -- ballistic missiles exceed that level when they re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere from space. But these next-generation weapons are designed be highly maneuverable at those velocities within the Earth’s atmosphere, helping them evade traditional defenses better than ballistic missiles that travel along a predictable arc.

The U.S. has been studying hypersonic weapons for decades, but spending has jumped in recent years as interest in the technology soared. The topic came into focus when General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an October interview on Bloomberg TV that a recent hypersonic test by China was close to a “Sputnik moment” for the U.S.

U.S. military officials have confirmed the Asian nation recently tested a hypersonic weapon that traveled around the world and hit a target back in China.

President Vladimir Putin has boasted about Russia’s hypersonic capabilities after showing them off in 2018, though the U.S. has been more vocal about concerns over China’s program.

Until the technology progresses, it’s unclear precisely how big a boon it will be for top U.S. defense contractors. Beyond near-term plans to deliver hypersonic weapons through a handful of development programs, Pentagon officials have made few decisions about how many and what type of weapons they plan to pursue longer term.

“We’re still waiting on the Department of Defense to define where this fits in their portfolio,” said Wesley Kremer, president of Raytheon Missiles & Defense.

Going Fast

Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for a hypersonic boost-glide missile for the U.S. Army and Navy, which also are sharing flight test plans to help speed development.

Lockheed’s Eric Scherff, vice president of the space systems division overseeing the program, said the company plans an initial flight test in the first half of 2022 and its first hypersonic missiles are on track to be delivered to the Army by the end of the government’s 2023 fiscal year. The Bethesda, Maryland-based defense giant is working on six hypersonic programs for the U.S. that could enter production between 2023 and 2026, Chief Executive Officer Jim Taiclet said told analysts in October.

Annual revenue tied to hypersonic weapons should rise to $3 billion by 2026 from $1.5 billion today, assuming key programs reach production, acting Chief Financial Officer John Mollard said during the same conference call.

Northrop Grumman supplies the missile’s rocket motors while Leidos Holdings Inc.’s Dynetics subsidiary is making the hypersonic glide body. Dynetics has a $342 million contract to produce 14 gliders, which could lead to a deal to produce 124 worth some $1 billion in revenue, according to the company.

After launch, the missile deploys a wedge-shaped glider when it’s above the atmosphere that enables it to zoom toward a target at ultra-high speeds.

Maturing Technology

Raytheon and Northrop Grumman successfully test fired an air-breathing concept weapon in September, part of a $200 million contract. The test “went a long way toward demonstrating how far and how fast we’ve been able to mature that technology,” said Raytheon’s Kremer.

The aircraft-launched hypersonic weapon uses a rocket booster to accelerate beyond the sound barrier before a supersonic ramjet -- or scramjet -- engine kicks in to propel the weapon past Mach 5. This type of missile could be purchased in larger quantities than boost-glide systems and at a lower unit cost, Kremer said.

The Pentagon’s rapid development effort has also seen some stumbles. Lockheed’s air-launched hypersonic weapon under development for the Air Force has failed three tests since April, most recently on Dec. 15.

As high-tech as this new generation of hardware sounds, it may be just a prelude to what contractors’ secretive research-and-development operations hint they could pursue next: a jump to light speed.

“Hypersonic technology is the natural evolution on the path to where we’ll eventually go, which is to speed-of-light weapons,” Kremer said.

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>>> Boeing and Airbus want the US to delay its 5G rollout because they're worried about interference with aircraft electronics


Business Insider

by Isobel Asher Hamilton

December 21, 2021


https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/boeing-airbus-want-us-delay-135412360.html


The CEOs of Boeing and Airbus wrote to Pete Buttigieg Monday asking him to delay the rollout of 5G.

AT&T and Verizon are due to start rolling out their 5G services on January 5.

The two chief executives said 5G interference could affect planes' ability to fly safely.


Chief executives at Boeing and Airbus, the two largest airplane makers in the world, have written to US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg asking him to delay the rollout of 5G services for phones.

In the letter seen by Reuters, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun and Airbus Americas CEO Jeffrey Knittel asked Buttigieg to postpone the planned January 5 deployment of AT&T and Verizon's 5G services in the US.

"5G interference could adversely affect the ability of aircraft to safely operate," the letter said, adding it could have an "enormous negative impact on the aviation industry."

AT&T and Verizon were scheduled to roll out their C-band 5G services in November, but delayed the rollout until the January 5 date following airplane safety concerns voiced by the Federal Aviation Authority. The FAA said in November that 5G deployment could potentially cause interference with altimeters on airplanes, used to measure the altitude of aircrafts.

A Boeing spokesperson told Insider: "The aerospace industry is focused on fully evaluating and addressing the potential for 5G interference with radio altimeters. We are collaborating with aviation authorities, government leaders, airlines, and industry groups to ensure the continued operational safety of aircraft throughout the aviation system worldwide."

The FAA issued an order earlier this month detailing potential restrictions on using systems commonly deployed for landing in bad weather due to concerns around 5G interference, The Wall Street Journal reported.

AT&T and Verizon did not immediately reply when contacted by Insider for comment.

A spokesman for a telecoms industry group has previously said concerns around 5G and airplane equipment are overblown.

"The aviation industry's fearmongering relies on completely discredited information and deliberate distortions of fact," Nick Ludlum, a spokesman for the wireless industry group CTIA, told The Wall Street Journal earlier this month.

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>>> U.S. Warns 5G Wireless Use Could Prompt Flight Diversions

Reuters
|
Dec. 7, 2021

By David Shepardson

https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2021-12-07/u-s-warns-5g-wireless-use-could-prompt-flight-diversions

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday warned that interference from planned use of 5G wireless spectrum posed an air safety risk and could result in flight diversions.

The aviation industry and the FAA have raised concerns about potential interference of 5G with sensitive aircraft electronics like radio altimeters. AT&T and Verizon Communications in November agreed to delay the commercial launch of C-band wireless service until Jan. 5 after the FAA raised concerns.

The FAA issued a pair of airworthiness directives ordering the revision of airplane and helicopter flight manuals to prohibit some operations requiring radio altimeter data when in the presence of 5G C-Band wireless broadband signals.

One FAA directive on Tuesday said the "unsafe condition" posed by the planned use required immediate action before the Jan. 5 deployment "because radio altimeter anomalies that are undetected by the aircraft automation or pilot, particularly close to the ground ... could lead to loss of continued safe flight and landing."

The FAA reiterated in a statement on Tuesday that it believes the "expansion of 5G and aviation will safely co-exist." The agency added that the two directives "provide a framework ... to gather more information to avoid potential effects on aviation safety equipment."

The FAA remains in discussions with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), White House and industry officials about the precise contours of any limitations, which are expected to be outlined in the coming weeks in a series of notices.

The FCC said Tuesday it "continues to make progress working with the FAA and private entities to advance the safe and swift deployment of 5G networks ... We look forward to updated guidance from the FAA in the coming weeks that reflects these developments."

It is not yet clear what airports or specific airplanes may be impacted. The FAA said notices would "be issued, as necessary, to state the specific areas where the data from a radio altimeter may be unreliable due to the presence of 5G C-Band wireless broadband signals."

AT&T and Verizon on Nov. 24 said they would adopt precautionary measures for at least six months to limit interference. But aviation industry groups said on Monday they were insufficient to address air safety concerns.

Verizon said Tuesday "there is no evidence that 5G operations using C-band spectrum pose any risk to aviation safety, as the real-world experience in dozens of countries already using this spectrum for 5G confirms," and added it was confident the FAA ultimately will conclude C-Band 5G use "poses no risk to air safety."

Verizon added it was "on track to launch 5G using C-band next month and to reach 100 million Americans with this network in the first quarter of 2022."

The wireless companies said in November they would take "additional steps to minimize energy coming from 5G base stations." The FAA said under 2020 FCC rules "base stations in rural areas of the United States are permitted to emit at higher levels in comparison to other countries."

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>>> Russia Just Created a Cloud of Bullets in Space


The militarization of space is heating up, and the destruction of an old Soviet satellite crossed a line.


Bloomberg

By James Stavridis

November 20, 2021


https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-11-20/russian-missile-test-created-a-cloud-of-bullets-in-space?srnd=premium


When Russia launched a missile from earth that destroyed an old Soviet satellite on Monday, the explosion created thousands of pieces of debris — a virtual cloud of bullets — that will spread through near-earth orbit or fall to the ground. This is a serious risk to astronauts, telecommunications satellites and other critical space systems, including even Russia’s own.

The test was a thoughtless exercise that will intensify the race to militarize space. And it added to the growing cloud of debris that, in the next few years, is expected to double the number of “avoidance maneuvers” satellite operators will be forced to undertake.

What was Russia hoping to gain, and how should the U.S. respond?

Employers Are Hiring. Why Are So Many Workers Holding Back?
As a U.S. State Department spokesman said of the test: “Today, miles above us, there are American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station. What the Russians did today, with these 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital debris, poses a risk not only to those astronauts, not only to those cosmonauts, but to satellites of all nations.”

The new U.S. Space Command, which monitors the debris, pointed out that in addition to those trackable pieces, there are “hundreds of thousands” of smaller bits. About half the fragments from the Russian test will fall to earth within a couple years. (Fortunately, there are no reported instances of people being seriously injured by the tumbling debris.)

The director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, former Florida Senator Bill Nelson, and I go way back. When I was commander of U.S. Southern Command, we often traveled through Latin America and the Caribbean. He has a solid grasp of national security issues. He also knows space: He was a payload specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1986.

In a phone call, Nelson told me the Russian drill was “unconscionable” and indicated it was a surprise not only to American astronauts, but to their Russian counterparts as well. We agreed that it was probably the Russian military acting on its own.

How much of a threat can a tiny bit of space debris be? Consider an earthbound analogy. On a U.S. aircraft carrier, before every launch, crew members meticulously walk the flight deck to find even the tiniest bit of metal, because a single piece of “foreign object debris” can disable the engine of a multimillion-dollar jet. Russia has basically released a vast number of FODs into low-earth altitude, which contains trillions of dollars of vital high-tech equipment.

It’s important to look at Russia’s test in the context of the increasing weaponization of the cosmos. The U.S., China and India also conduct military operations in space. These involve sophisticated intelligence collection (conducted visually, electronically and thermally); targeting for ground-based missile systems; navigational support for military platforms; monitoring of communication systems (cell phones in particular); and enhancing military communications both in space and on earth.

Russia’s test wasn’t an end in itself. It was the next step in the development of its cutting-edge antisatellite system, known as Nudol. Moscow has previously shown an ability to use a satellite to attack another satellite. India and China have demonstrated antisatellite capabilities as well. Of course, the U.S. has its own systems and tests. But in using a missile and creating a vast debris field, Russia crossed a dangerous line.

How should Washington respond? In terms of diplomacy, the U.S needs to confront Russia (and any other nation conducting similar tests) with a public shaming and incontrovertible evidence of its recklessness — much as Washington does with state-sponsored cybercrimes. The U.S. needs to ensure that allies, partners and friends similarly condemn missions that increase levels of space debris. International organizations such as the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the European Space Agency should be engaged as well.

The Space Force, created in 2019, is a sixth branch of the U.S. armed forces — technically on a par with the Army and Navy. There will probably be a Cyber Force before too long, and the two branches will be deeply intertwined, as everything that happens in space is dependent on a secure communications ecosystem.

For a nascent entity, the Space Force already has a big job: Carefully tracking U.S. space assets to position them for safe transit among the debris; developing strategies to counter potential Russian operations against key national security satellites; working on operational planning with non-treaty allies that have advanced space capabilities, such as Japan; and ensuring that the government is purchasing the right technology to defend and deter in space.

The heavens are a shared zone of human endeavor, and as Nelson said to me, “Every nation has a responsibility to prevent the purposeful creation of space debris and to help create a safe, sustainable space environment.” Russia just showed how hard that shared endeavor will be.

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>>> NASA's uncrewed Artemis moon mission is due to launch in February, following delays caused by the pandemic and Hurricane Ida


Business Insider

10/23/2021


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nasas-uncrewed-artemis-moon-mission-is-due-to-launch-in-february-following-delays-caused-by-the-pandemic-and-hurricane-ida/ar-AAPRmbr?ocid=uxbndlbing


NASA announced its Artemis 1 uncrewed mission to the moon is aiming for liftoff in February 2022.

The flight was originally scheduled to launch in November this year.
The mission aims to pave the way for future crewed lunar missions for the first time since 1972.

NASA announced it is aiming to launch its uncrewed flight to the moon in February 2022, following a four-month delay.

The Artemis 1 mission was originally scheduled to launch in November, but delays caused by the pandemic and Hurricane Ida have led to the postponement.

The US space agency said on Friday it completed stacking the Orion crew capsule atop its Space Launch System rocket, which now stands at 322 feet tall inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Insider's Morgan McFall-Johnsen reported the moon rocket is taller than the Statue of Liberty. The system has to be that large to produce enough thrust to push its Orion spaceship all the way around the moon - 1,000 times farther than the International Space Station.

"It's hard to put into words what this milestone means, not only to us here at Exploration Ground Systems, but to all the incredibly talented people who have worked so hard to help us get to this point," said Mike Bolger, Exploration Ground Systems program manager.

NASA stacks rocket, spacecraft for moon mission

"Our team has demonstrated tremendous dedication preparing for the launch of Artemis I. While there is still work to be done to get to launch, with continued integrated tests and Wet Dress Rehearsal, seeing the fully stacked SLS is certainly a reward for all of us," he added.

According to NASA, the Artemis 1 mission will pave the way for a future flight test involving a crew, before more complex missions with astronauts take place on and around the moon.

The mission is part of the agency's Artemis program, a series of missions to return people to the moon for the first time since 1972. The plan calls for a crewed lunar landing in 2024.

After the uncrewed Artemis 1 flight, Artemis 2 would be the first crewed test of Orion and the SLS rocket, Insider previously reported.

In a lunar flyby, the Orion capsule would carry four astronauts around the moon's far side, which is almost a quarter of a million miles from Earth. That crew would go farther into deep space than any humans before them.

A new study revealed by NASA considers the possibility of building a lunar Wi-Fi network, the agency reported. It comes in an effort to address inadequate internet access across parts of the US and help inform future Artemis missions.

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>>> Brewing Solar Superstorms Could Cause Internet Meltdown; Experts Say World Is Unprepared


International Business Times

By Nica Osorio

09/02/21


https://www.ibtimes.com/brewing-solar-superstorms-could-cause-internet-meltdown-experts-say-world-unprepared-3286728


Scientists predict that the next super solarstorms could cause a global internet apocalypse and fear the world is not prepared enough to resolve it.

The threat of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused people to retreat to the comfort of their homes and has allowed them to find solace in video games, online shopping and social media, among others. But, another menace could disrupt this new kind of normalcy humanity has recently afforded.

The impending threat was revealed at the SIGCOMM 2021 data communication conference last week by Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi of the University of California in a presentation titled "Solar Superstorms: Planning for an Internet Apocalypse." In the research, the expert highlighted that even if the power outage caused by the solar superstorm could be fixed in hours or days, massive internet outages will persist.

Solar Storms Expected to Disrupt Earth for Next Decade

The eruption of the sun on Sunday and Monday with an M8.7 class flare, causing the biggest solar radiation storm since 2003, has revived apprehensions of stronger solar flares in the near future.

In an interview with Wired, Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi shared the study is about the story of humanity being completely unprepared for something of significant importance. "What really got me thinking about this is that with the pandemic, we saw how unprepared the world was. There was no protocol to deal with it effectively, and it’s the same with internet resilience," the lead author of the research said.

"Our infrastructure is not prepared for a large-scale solar event. We have very limited understanding of what the extent of the damage would be," the expert pointed out. Is the world really not prepared for a massive internet outage?

In May, Dominic Cummings, former principal advisor to the U.K. prime minister, revealed that while the U.K. has plans, they are "completely hopeless." He also noted that solar storms could create a far "worse situation than Covid."

Experts discovered the impending solar superstorms could cause less damage to local and regional internet infrastructure because they are made of optical fiber, which is resilient to geomagnetically induced currents. These cables are also grounded regularly.

However, long undersea cables that link continents are at greater risk. A solar storm that could disrupt these cables could cut the connectivity of various countries from the source.

That's not all. A massive solar superstorm could also knock out equipment that orbits the Earth, which enables various services such as global positioning and satellite internet.

High-energy particles from the solar superstorm would gather toward the Earth's poles, which places areas in higher latitudes at a greater risk. Unfortunately, this is where the majority of internet infrastructure and undersea cables are located.

If destructive solar superstorms happen, North America could suffer from prolonged internet outages since it heavily depends on longer cables. The research predicted that while Europe and America could become disconnected, the equatorial hub in Singapore that links countries in Asia would be less likely affected.

Internet outages cost a lot of money. It is estimated to cost approximately $7.2 billion per day to the U.S. economy. Previously recorded severe solar storm events that caused problems are the ones that occurred in 1859, 1921 and 1989.

The 1859 event caused compass needles to swing uncontrollably while the most recent event in 1989 caused a nine-hour power outage in northeast Canada when it took down a Hydro-Quebec power grid.

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>>> Sun Unleashes Major Solar Flare; Coronal Mass Ejection Could Reach Earth This Weekend


International Business Times

By Athena Chan

10/28/21


https://www.ibtimes.com/sun-unleashes-major-solar-flare-coronal-mass-ejection-could-reach-earth-weekend-3326911


KEY POINTS

A "significant" solar flare erupted from the sun Thursday

It caused a "strong" radio blackout event

A radiation storm warning is in effect until Friday evening


The sun emitted a "significant" solar flare Thursday. The coronal mass ejection could reach the Earth this weekend, possibly bringing a Halloween geomagnetic storm.

The solar flare erupted from Region 2887 at about 11:35 a.m. EDT Thursday, the NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) noted. The event, which is classified as an X1 flare, also "appeared to have coronal mass ejection (CME) signatures."

As NASA explained, X-class flares are the "most intense flares." The number alongside the classification also adds more information about its strength. For instance, an X2 flare is twice more intense as an X1, while an X3 is three times more intense and so on.

"POW! The Sun just served up a powerful flare!" NASA noted in a tweet. It also shared an image of the flare on its Solar Cycle 25 blog as captured by its Solar Dynamic Observatory, which is constantly watching the sun.

Solar flares are "powerful bursts of radiation," the agency noted. When this radiation reaches the Earth, it can interfere with certain systems such as GPS, spacecraft orbits, satellite electronics and, in more extreme events, power grids.

In the case of Thursday's flare, the SWPC noted that it caused a temporary R3 event. An R3 pertains to a "strong" radio blackout event wherein there could be a "wide area blackout of HF radio communication, loss of radio contact for about an hour on sunlit side of Earth." Low-frequency navigation may also be affected for about an hour.

The associated coronal mass ejection could reach the Earth sometime Saturday or Sunday, just in time for Halloween, Spaceweather.com reported, noting that new data could provide more precise forecasts.

Currently, however, an S1 radiation storm alert is already in place in relation to the X1 flare. Considered a "minor" alert with only minor possible impacts on HF radio in the polar regions, the S1 radiation storm began at 1:40 p.m. EDT Thursday, and the alert will persist until Friday at 8:40 a.m.

This is so far the second X-class solar flare of the current Solar Cycle 25, SpaceWeatherLive.com reported, noting that it was certainly an "eruptive" event.

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Airbus, Plug Power - >>> Plug Power Stock Jumps for 2 Reasons. A Third Catalyst Is Coming


Barron's

By Al Root

Oct. 13, 2021


https://www.barrons.com/articles/plug-power-stock-upgrade-airbus-51634127347?siteid=yhoof2


Stock in hydrogen technology company Plug Power rose in premarket trading Wednesday. A couple things have investors excited. There is a third catalyst coming soon that could give shares another boost.

Plug Power (ticker: PLUG) stock jumped about 7.7% in premarket trading Wednesday after rising 7.7% Tuesday. S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively.

Morgan Stanley analyst Stephen Byrd helped things get started Wednesday morning by upgrading shares to Buy from Hold. His price target goes to $40 from $35 a share. Byrd believes the company is well-positioned for a few reasons: the $4 billion in cash on its balance sheet; legislative support for low-carbon emission technologies such as hydrogen; and strategic partnerships, such as a recent partnership formed to make and distribute hydrogen gas in South Korea.

Plug formed another partnership Wednesday, which is likely intriguing investors. Commercial aerospace giant Airbus (AIR.France) and Plug are working together to investigate green hydrogen for use in air transportation.

So-called green hydrogen comes from producing hydrogen gas by passing electricity generated by renewable resources through water. That way, there is no carbon dioxide—the main gas blamed for global climate change—emitted in production. Most hydrogen gas is made from natural gas these days. That process emits carbon dioxide.

“We at Airbus see huge potential for green hydrogen to power our future zero-emission aircraft,” said Glenn Llewellyn, Airbus Vice-President, Zero Emission Aircraft, in a joint news release. Plug Power is “a true pioneer in developing green hydrogen infrastructure across the United States, and key points across Europe and Asia.”

The pair wants to have zero-carbon emission plane by 2035. That would be a plane that looks like today’s jets, but burns hydrogen instead of traditional jet fuel.

Those are Wednesday’s catalysts for Plug stock. On Thursday, the company hosts an investor event it is calling a hydrogen symposium—something else investors can look forward to. B. Riley analyst Christopher Souther, in a Tuesday research note, said Plug is likely to increase 2021 guidance and 2024 financial goals at the event.

Plug stock is still down about 12% year to date, but has seen some improvement lately. Shares are up 23% over the past month.

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>>> Private-Jet Market Roars to Life and Planemakers Can’t Keep Up


Bloomberg

By Thomas Black + Follow

October 11, 2021


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-11/private-jet-market-roars-to-life-and-planemakers-can-t-keep-up?srnd=premium


Industry sees strongest demand since the Great Recession

Builders rolling out new jets with lots of bells and whistles


Kenn Ricci, the chairman of Flexjet and a 30-year veteran of the private-plane business, says he’s struggling like never before to find planes to expand his fleet.

Aircraft manufacturers will just laugh if a buyer requests a new plane to be delivered within the next six months and the used market has been picked clean, according to Ricci. Flexjet has locked in purchases of 65 aircraft over the next 12 months to expand the fleet by 40%. And that’s after the company suspended sales of blocks of flight hours because it simply couldn’t keep up with demand.

“We’re buying what we can find that’s dispatchable,” said Ricci, who through investment firm Directional Aviation controls several aviation companies including Flexjet, Sentient Jet and a new unit for helicopter shuttles. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime grab.”

With Flexjet seeing annual growth of about 30%, Ricci is confident many of his new customers will stick around even after the pandemic subsides, now that they’ve been exposed to the conveniences that come with private plane travel. Unlike the commercial airlines, the number of private-aircraft flights snapped back quickly after a sharp downturn at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. U.S. private-aircraft flights are on pace to be the highest since the industry’s peak in 2007 -- and that’s even as corporate travel remains subdued. Orders for new aircraft easily outpaced production during the second quarter.

After a decade of the industry grappling with overproduction and price discounts, the long-term outlook hasn’t been this good in years. Ricci’s urgent need for new aircraft -- and pre-owned inventories at record lows -- is a boon for planemakers, including Bombardier Inc., Textron Inc., Embraer SA and General Dynamics Inc.’s Gulfstream unit. Those companies had slashed deliveries in 2020 when flying declined at the onset of the pandemic and are now in a position to boost production and increase prices. This year and next are shaping up to be banner growth years for the industry, albeit from a low base.

The influx of new customers to private aviation was a surprise for Ron Draper, chief executive officer of Textron Aviation, the maker of Cessna jets. The clients are discovering how much time and hassle they can save by avoiding commercial airports and the typical delays, flight cancellations and limited destinations. Private fliers can design their own schedules and fly directly to smaller cities, making them more productive and more likely to keep flying business jets, he said.

“What this pandemic has done is brought new people into private aviation, and I see that continuing,” Draper said in an email. “With the lack of commercial flight options and the productivity of business aviation, demand should remain strong for some time.”

About two-thirds of business-jet operators plan to fly more hours next year than in 2021, according to an annual survey by Honeywell International Inc. The strong demand is buoying one of the few industries that never fully recovered from the Great Recession.

That crash caused revenue for plane manufacturers to plummet 21% in 2009 to $17.4 billion and thousands of service jobs were lost as flight operations fell 20% that year. Some aircraft makers, including Hawker Beachcraft, went bust. The era also coincided with a backlash against flying privately after fierce criticism of automaker CEOs who arrived on their corporate jets to seek bailout money from Congress.

New aircraft shipments, excluding very small jets and converted airliners, sank to 560 last year from 715 in 2019. The 2020 total was less than half of what it was 15 years earlier. Deliveries are expected to climb to 611 this year and to 647 in 2022, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Annual deliveries may reach 900 new jets within five years, said Brian Foley, a private aviation consultant who had headed marketing for Dassault Aviation SA, the Paris-based maker of Falcon jets.

“I see no abatement. A lot of new users came into private aviation, and they won’t all stay, but some will,” Foley said. “This time I have hope that the industry will perform better.”

Flight Fever

Business-jet flights snap back to pre-pandemic levels as demand surges

Denver-based Mesinger Jet Sales in the past has sent emails to potential customers showcasing the planes available for sale, but since the pandemic hit it’s blasting out emails in search of inventory. The market hasn’t been this lopsided on the number of buyers versus sellers for at least the 47 years that Jay Mesinger, the company’s founder, has been a private-jet broker.

“If you go to the inventory side, you’ll see there are zero for sale,” Mesinger said.

The tight used-aircraft market is compelling customers to purchase new even if they have to wait a couple of years for delivery. Still, it will take manufacturers time to rev up their supply chains.

Private jet shipments over the next decade are expected to total 7,400 at a value of $238 billion, according to the survey by Honeywell, which makes components from jet engines to cockpit controls for business aircraft. That’s higher than last year’s prediction of 7,300 worth $235 billion over 10 years. Still, that’s below a peak 2014 estimate of 9,450 jets valued at $280 billion.

Plane manufacturers are rolling out new jets with lots of bells and whistles in an attempt to stimulate sales. Dassault unveiled the Falcon 10X, the French company’s largest jet, in May. Bombardier has revamped a popular mid-sized jet that it’s now calling the Challenger 3500 and Gulfstream this month introduced two new jets -- a smaller variant of its G500 and a remake of the G650.

Flexjet says nine out of 10 recent first-time buyers of jet cards, which provide a set number of flying hours, have renewed their purchases. After the company suspended sales of jet cards to conserve capacity for its main business of selling partial aircraft ownership, 45% of those jet-card holders upped their commitment by taking on a three-year fractional lease.

Wealthy private jet fliers are unlikely to give up their new-found creature comforts, Ricci said, so demand is unlikely to wane.

“It appears sticky.”

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>>> Xeriant, Inc. (XERI), doing business as Xeriant Aerospace, operates as an aerospace technology and advanced materials company. The company focuses on acquiring, developing, and commercializing various technologies and advanced materials for aerospace, including innovative aircraft concepts. It is developing Halo, an aerial platform that uses a powered lift ducted fan system to seamlessly transition from vertical to forward flight. The company was formerly known as Banjo & Matilda, Inc. and changed its name to Xeriant, Inc. in June 2020. Xeriant, Inc. is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.

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>>> Airbus, Air New Zealand to Jointly Study Hydrogen Aircraft Feasibility -


Air New Zealand News

September 15 2021

By Stephen Wright


https://ih.advfn.com/stock-market/ASX/AIZ/stock-news/86062203/airbus-air-new-zealand-to-jointly-study-hydrogen


WELLINGTON, New Zealand--Airbus SE and Air New Zealand Ltd. have agreed to jointly research the feasibility of operating a hydrogen-fueled aircraft by the end of this decade.

Airbus, which has been exploring three hydrogen-powered aircraft concepts, said the joint study would help it understand the practical challenges of putting an aircraft powered by a renewable energy source into service. Air New Zealand would assess the possible impact that a hydrogen aircraft would have on its network, operations and infrastructure.

The airline earlier this month told an aviation conference it aims have a so-called zero carbon plane in its domestic fleet by 2030--likely for cargo--and is exploring both hydrogen and electric options.

As governments ramp up efforts to meet targets for reductions in carbon emissions, transport industries and aviation in particular are likely to face increased pressure from investors, regulators and their customers to decrease reliance on fossil fuels.

Air New Zealand has 51 turbo prop planes that it uses on regional New Zealand routes and about half of them--Bombardier Q300 planes--have an average age of 14.5 years and will need to be replaced after 2030.

"This agreement brings us a step closer to seeing low carbon solutions in place for our shorter domestic and regional flights in the next decade," the airline said.

For long-haul routes, the airline is exploring fuels with lower carbon emissions.

Two New Zealand power utilities--Contact Energy and Meridian Energy Ltd.--have been scoping a possible investment in hydrogen production in the far south of New Zealand, close to big hydro lakes.

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>>> Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. develops and produces military and commercial aerospace and defense systems.


https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/israel-aerospace-industries?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=profile_cta&utm_campaign=yahoo_finance


The company provides space systems including communication and observation satellites, launchers, ground stations and systems, and subsystems and components; and unmanned air systems comprising of electro-optical payloads, inertial systems, maritime solutions, ground control and airborne systems, and data terminals. The company also offers defense systems; military aircraft and helicopters maintenance and upgrade services including services for special mission aircraft, aero structures and wiring, training solutions and systems, operational support products and services, airborne systems, tactical mid-air collision avoidance systems, defense self-protection communications, A/C and engine parts, telemetry and airborne instrumentation equipment, toolkits, and helicopter military seats.

In addition, the company provides naval systems such as surveillance systems, patrol and attack crafts, training and simulation products, ship combat suites, combat management systems, naval attack missiles, naval LAHAT and Barak systems, sea-to-sea missiles, weapon systems modernization and integration services, radar systems, and skimmers. The company also offers maintenance, repair, overhaul, and conversion services for civil aircrafts; integrated intelligence systems, air command control communication systems, radars, and defense and self-protection products; land systems comprising of land-based Barak systems, armored dozers, airborne systems for aerostats, mine blast resistant seats, land navigation systems, precision strike systems and guided munitions, loitering weapons, ground vehicles, field porters, and ground SIGINT systems.

Israel Aerospace Industries also offers cyber defense, maritime, border protection, defense surveillance systems, and crisis and emergency management systems, as well as business jets and aero assemblies.

Israel Aerospace Industries was founded in 1953 and is based in Lod, Israel.

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>>> China Hypersonic Drone Program Confirmed by Military Researchers


Newsweek

9-7-21

by John Feng


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/china-hypersonic-drone-program-confirmed-by-military-researchers/ar-AAObFlF?ocid=uxbndlbing


China's military scientists appeared to confirm the existence of a hypersonic drone program this month after publishing research on the challenges of landing an unmanned aircraft travelling at Mach 5.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday that researchers with China's People's Liberation Army Air Force were working on refining the technology behind a classified model of hypersonic drone, although it was unclear whether such a vehicle was already in service.

The paper published on September 1 appeared in the bi-monthly Chinese journal Tactical Missile Technology.

Dai Fei, of Beihang University in Beijing, conducted the study with four others and the College of Automation Engineering at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Their research looked at an "unpowered return guidance scheme" for unmanned aerial vehicles traveling at five times the speed of sound. At that speed, and from an altitude of 19 miles, the engine of the hypersonic UAV would need to be shut down 125 miles from the intended landing runway, The Post said.

According to the abstract by Dai et al., the drone would enter an "automatic landing interface," which the paper said would rely solely on software prediction to determine the timing and angle of approach, based on variables such as air pressure and altitude.

Neither humans nor the fastest of computers would be able to intervene and provide course corrections at Mach 5, the newspaper said in its latest report into under-development, next-generation PLA technology. The solution, the researchers said, was to improve the software "to better predict possible landing scenarios."

To slow down the UAV, the military scientists would have it perform subtle S turns, but only within the stress limits allowed by the aircraft's wings or body, the study said. As hypersonic aircraft engines cannot be restarted, this "absence of controlled power adds complexity to the landing," according to The Post.

Tuesday's report quotes Chinese engineering professor Wang Xing as saying the PLA could use hypersonic drones against U.S. Air Force F-35s or F-22s, which could be caught "in seconds" after launching an attack.

In July, the newspaper reported designs for a future hypersonic jet that, by 2035, could ferry 10 passengers to anywhere on Earth within an hour. By the mid-2040s, the aircraft could be delivering 10,000 tons of cargo and 10,000 people to space—or moon—stations every year.

In another report the same month, The Post revealed that PLA researchers were developing a hypersonic vehicle–mounted laser that could manipulate the shock wave at the nose of a moving aircraft or missile to allow for faster and safer travel.

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>>> China Is Developing an “ULTRA-LARGE” SPACECRAFT That Is Miles Long


industry Tap

By Nidhi Goyal

August 25th, 2021


https://www.industrytap.com/china-is-developing-an-ultra-large-spacecraft-that-is-miles-long/59002


China’s space ambitions are growing. China is working on an “ultra-large spacecraft” that is MILES long. With this project, the country is planning to increase space exploration, and facilitate long-term crewed assignments.

To analyze how to construct such a massive structure in orbit, the National Natural Science Foundation of China is calling on scientists.

The mission aims to assure “the future utilization of space resources, the study of the secrets of the cosmos, and long-term orbit.”

According to the South China Morning Post, it’s one of five projects funded by the foundation. And each one of these will be receiving about $2.3 million (15 million yuan).

Challenges in the project

But, launching a miles-long spacecraft would not be possible on a single rocket. So, they plan to send separate modules into space and then assemble the huge structure in orbit.

To make this a success, scientists are focusing on keeping mass down. And also to ensure that nothing breaks on the way.

Not only that they also have to optimize the control capabilities of the structures. To avoid the structures from moving, vibrating, or twisting out of control during assembly.

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>>> Lilium in talks with Brazilian airline for $1B order


Tech Crunch

by Aria Alamalhodaei

August 2, 2021


https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/02/lilium-in-talks-with-brazilian-airline-for-1b-order/


German electric aircraft startup Lilium is negotiating the terms for a 220-aircraft, $1 billion order with one of Brazil’s largest domestic airlines, the companies said Monday. Should the deal with Azul move forward, it would mark the largest order in Lilium’s history and its first foray into South American markets.

“A term sheet has been signed and we will move toward a final agreement in the coming months,” a Lilium spokesperson told TechCrunch.

The 220 aircraft would fly as part of a new, co-branded airline network that would operate in Brazil. Should the two companies come to an agreement, Azul would operate and maintain the fleet of the flagship seven-seater aircraft, and Lilium would provide custom spare parts, including replacement batteries, and an aircraft health monitoring platform.

Deliveries would commence in 2025, a year after Lilium has said it plans to begin commercial operations in Europe and the United States. These timelines are dependent upon Lilium receiving key certification approvals from each country’s requisite aerospace regulator. Azul said in a statement it would “support Lilium with the necessary regulatory approval processes in Brazil” as part of the agreement.

Even if a deal is reached, it would likely be subject to Lilium hitting certain performance standards and benchmarks, similar to the conditions of Archer Aviation’s $1 billion order with United Airlines. Still, orders of this value are seen as a positive signal to markets and investors that an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft is more than smoke and mirrors.

Also like Archer, Lilium is planning on taking the SPAC route to going public. The company in March announced its intention to merge with Qell Acquisition Corp. and list on Nasdaq under ticker symbol “LILM.” SPACs have become a popular vehicle for public listing across the transportation sector, but they’ve become especially popular with capital-intensive eVTOL startups.

The merger may be necessary for the company’s continued operations. According to the German news website Welt, Lilium added a risk warning to its 2019 balance sheet noting that it will run out of money in December 2022 should the SPAC merger not be completed.

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>>> Lilium is an aviation company developing an emissions-free regional air mobility service. It has designed and prototyped the Lilium Jet, a brand-new type of aircraft that will enable it to deliver regional journeys that are considerably faster than rail or road, yet competitive in price. The demonstrator aircraft first flew in 2019 and is a five-seater, fully-electric aircraft that can take-off and land vertically (VTOL).


https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/lilium-aviation?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=profile_cta&utm_campaign=yahoo_finance

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(Palantir is investor)

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>>> Why Virgin Galactic Stock Tumbled the Day After Its Historic Launch


Barron's

By Al Root and Callum Keown

July 12, 2021


https://www.barrons.com/articles/virgin-galactic-spce-stock-price-51626087657?siteid=yhoof2


Virgin Galactic stock tumbled Monday morning, the day after Richard Branson’s company completed the world’s first space tourism flight. That isn’t as odd as it seems.

Shares in Virgin Galactic (ticker: SPCE) rose 217% in the two months ahead of Sunday’s flight and climbed about 9% in Monday’s premarket trading. But shares fell 17.3% to $40.69 on Monday. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at records, each up more than 0.3%.

The stock’s move feels odd given the success the company had on Sunday. The landmark flight to the edge of space opened up a new frontier for commercial space travel in a race between billionaires that has captivated investors. Founder Branson signed the company’s astronaut log as astronaut 001.

Part of the reason for the fall may have to do with Virgin Galactic’s plans to sell more stock. According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday, Virgin Galactic will sell up to $500 million in common stock. Investors don’t like to see their positions diluted.

But the stock’s move may simply be another example of an old Wall Street adage: “Buy the rumor, sell the news.” It’s important to remember that the market always looks ahead and will discount tomorrow’s news today. That’s why stocks make big, discontinuous jumps when things don’t go as expected.

That happened earlier this year. Unexpected test delays cratered Virgin Galactic stock in early May, leaving investors with no guidance on when testing would get back on schedule. Testing resumed, without warning, and shares jumped. Then, Branson’s test flight was announced.

Shares rose about 7% between the flight announcement on July 1 and this past Friday. Monday’s decline means shares are down about 4% since the flight was announced. Still, Galactic stock is up about 25% over the past month.

Selling the news doesn’t mean there is a cadre of traders selling shares. On Monday, there are simply no more buyers willing to pay higher prices for Virgin Galactic stock now that its big catalyst has passed.

The drop has nothing to do with the long-term direction of Virgin Galactic. That will be based on the success Galactic has in growing space tourism. “A top priority for the company [in coming years] will be to create a thriving space tourism industry,” Canaccord analyst Ken Herbert told Barron’s on Sunday.

What’s Ahead for Space Tourism

Herbert rates Virgin Galactic shares Buy with a price target of $35. He set that price target in May when Galactic stock was at about $27 a share. Year to date, Galactic stock is still up more than 80% and a lot of the company’s success is already reflected in the share price.

The successful trip is a landmark moment in the space tourism race, but there are many more expected. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos plans to make his own flight to the edge of space on July 20 in his Blue Origin New Shepard capsule.

There is more competition to come, as Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk is planning a number of SpaceX missions, taking passengers on longer trips, with the first scheduled for September.

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>>> Branson Blasts Off: Mach 3 to Zero G in a Natty Blue Spacesuit


Bloomberg

By Damian Shepherd and Christopher Jasper

July 10, 2021


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-10/branson-blasts-off-mach-3-to-zero-g-in-a-natty-blue-spacesuit?srnd=premium


Virgin Galactic’s billionaire founder scheduled to fly Sunday

VSS Unity will rocket to 55 miles high from luxury spaceport


Richard Branson plans to fly to the edge of space in his Virgin Galactic rocket plane on Sunday, finally fulfilling a goal he set for himself when the company was founded more than 15 years ago.

While representing a personal milestone for the British billionaire, the suborbital test mission will also set a template for launches carrying the hundreds of space tourists that Virgin Galactic wants to take aloft starting next year.

Here’s what Branson -- and his future customers -- can expect from the 90-minute trip.

Fit to Fly

Would-be astronauts don’t just have to shell out the big bucks for tickets, which at one point were priced at $250,000 each. They also must show that they’re up to the physical demands of the voyage.

Branson, who turns 71 this month, has gone through rigorous tests to prepare for the experience, enduring a centrifuge simulating extreme acceleration and a parabolic flight to induce weightlessness.

Looking the Part

Developed by Under Armour Inc., the Virgin Galactic spacesuit comes in royal blue with gold trim. The outfits are lightweight and personally tailored, with a name badge and country flag. There’s also a patch unique to each mission that can be attached to a limited-edition flight jacket for everyday wear once back on the ground. The spacesuit also sports a pocket for a picture of loved ones (another holds a sick bag).

A tight-fitting base layer will enhance blood flow during the high- and zero-gravity portions of the mission. The get-up is completed by lightweight, foam-cushioned and flame-retardant space boots like those of racecar drivers. Pilots get additional black trim and a wings emblem.

Pre-Flight Pampering

Space voyagers will begin their journey by relaxing in the Virgin Galactic Gaia lounge, the centerpiece of the Spaceport America complex in the desert scrublands of southern New Mexico.

The spaceport dates back about 15 years to when Branson and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson struck a deal for the state to build the facility in exchange for becoming home to Virgin Galactic missions.

Champagne, caviar and seared tuna are featured on the menu at the $200 million edifice designed by U.K. architects Foster + Partners. With Sunday’s spaceshot expected around 7 a.m. local time, a strong espresso from the lounge’s marble-clad “barista island” may be more in order.

Runway Takeoff

Virgin Galactic uses a two-stage system to escape Earth’s gravity.

While Branson and his fellow crew members will board the VSS Unity -- designed to carry six passengers and two crew -- its rocket engine initially plays no part. Instead, the vehicle is slung beneath a larger carrier aircraft, the four-engine VMS Eve. The carrier plane was developed by Scaled Composites, a developer of experimental aircraft now owned by Northrop Grumman Corp.

Eve will take off from a runway like a conventional aircraft and climb high into the sky for what’s probably the most critical part of the mission.

Rocket Science

Once Unity reaches an altitude approaching 50,000 feet (15,200 meters), it will detach from Eve and ignite its single rocket motor. It will go supersonic within eight seconds and power up to 2,600 miles per hour (4,200 kilometers per hour), or beyond Mach 3.

After 70 seconds the engine will cut out, with the spacecraft coasting to its peak altitude, which for Sunday’s mission will be a height of 55 miles or almost 300,000 feet, according to Virgin Galactic.

That’s beyond NASA’s traditional 50-mile definition of where the atmosphere ends and space starts, though short of the 62 miles where the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, which regulates aeronautical sports and record attempts, places the boundary.

In a Friday tweet, Blue Origin, the rocket maker backed by Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, dismissed Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft as nothing more than a “high altitude airplane” since it won’t break the so-called Karman Line at 62 miles. Bezos plans to fly to space in a Blue Origin launch on July 20.

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket performs a traditional liftoff with no carrier aircraft.

I’m Floating!

Virgin Galactic’s astronauts won’t much care about definitions when they can unbuckle and experience four minutes of near weightlessness, with the Earth staring back at them through the Unity’s 17 windows. HD cameras throughout the cabin will capture every moment.

Curved Planet

In addition to microgravity, Branson and his buddies will experience two other sensations unique to space travel.

The colors outside will change from blue to indigo to midnight black as Unity climbs above the atmosphere, with the stars becoming visible and the sun shining as brightly as on the ground but against the dark sky.

In addition, the curvature of the Earth will be clearly visible, with the planet fringed by the thin strip of its atmosphere, making it readily apparent that humanity really is riding along on a sphere.

The view won’t quite match the one from the International Space Station, which orbits about 250 miles above the Earth, but will still be “incredible and life changing,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier told Bloomberg TV on July 2.

Back to Reality

To prepare for re-entry, the Unity’s wings will be raised to an angle of 60 degrees in a process known as feathering, causing the vehicle to act much like a shuttlecock to create high drag and safely descend back into the atmosphere.

The wings will then rotate down to their original position, with the craft gliding back to the ground to land on the same runway it took off from.

A premature deployment of the feathering system when VSS Enterprise, Unity’s predecessor, was still climbing led to the 2014 tragedy in which one pilot was killed and another injured as the spacecraft broke up over California’s Mojave Desert.

Weather Willing

Virgin Galactic’s location in New Mexico offers low humidity and abundant sunny days. Wind speeds are a significant wild card, however. The Unity’s transformation into an unpowered glider means it can’t touch down in high winds, said Will Whitehorn, a former Virgin Galactic leader. So the weather could delay the launch.

Over to Bezos

Virgin Galactic aims to debut commercial services next year. But after Sunday’s mission, attention will turn to Bezos.

He is due to be accompanied by former astronaut trainee Wally Funk, 82, who is set to become the oldest person to reach space, and a mystery passenger who bid $28 million to join the mission.

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Spire ->>> Second Successful 2021 Launch for Spire


Yahoo Finance

May 4, 2021


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/second-successful-2021-launch-spire-110000210.html


Spire grows LEMUR CubeSat platform with newly deployed satellites

On April 29 Spire successfully deployed two new satellites into its LEMUR constellation. The satellites bring Spire to 143 total satellites launched, with more than 110 currently in orbit. This is the second launch of 2021 for Spire and 30th launch overall.

The Low Earth Multi-Use Receiver (LEMUR) is Spire’s CubeSat platform used to track maritime, aviation, and weather activity from space. Each satellite is equipped with multiple sensors, capable of capturing data day and night and during extreme weather conditions.

These two satellites expand Spire’s rapidly growing data capture capabilities, strengthening the company's operational capacity to serve its growing global customer base. Spire leverages its constellation to deliver proprietary data, insights, and predictive analytics to its global commercial and government customers through a subscription.

"A successful deployment requires a lot of collaboration between Spire and its partners, and we’re delighted to celebrate another successful step in serving our customers with fresh data and insights," said Spire CEO, Peter Platzer. "We are committed to reliably serve our customers a little better every day. With this latest deployment we’re better equipped to help organizations across the world confidently and efficiently make decisions that matter with deliberate speed."

The satellites were named by two key members of the Spire team, one of the "perks" every person working at Spire enjoys. Keith Johnson, VP and General Manager of Federal, named the first "Special K" after a nickname from his two sons. Svante Eriksson, AIS payload captain, named the second "Svante-Amanda" for himself and his wife.

About Spire Global, Inc.

Spire is a global provider of space-based data and analytics that offers unique datasets and powerful insights about Earth from the ultimate vantage point - space - so organizations can make decisions with confidence, accuracy, and speed. Spire uses the largest multi-purpose satellite constellation to source hard to acquire, valuable data and enriches it with predictive solutions. Spire then provides this data as a subscription to organizations around the world so they can improve business operations, decrease their environmental footprint, deploy resources for growth and competitive advantage, and mitigate risk. Spire gives commercial and government organizations the competitive advantage they seek to innovate and solve some of the world’s toughest problems with insights from space. Spire has offices in San Francisco, CA, Boulder, CO, Washington DC, Glasgow, Luxembourg, and Singapore. On March 1, 2021 Spire announced plans to go public through a planned business combination with NavSight Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NSH), to be traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "SPIR." To learn more, visit spire.com.

About NavSight Holdings, Inc.

NavSight Holdings, Inc. is a blank check company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. NavSight was organized with the opportunity to pursue a business combination target in any business or industry, with the intent to focus its search on identifying a prospective target business that provides expertise and technology to U.S. government customers in support of their national security, intelligence and defense missions.

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>>> Rocket Lab Is a Mini-SpaceX That Investors Can Buy Today


Barron's

By Al Root and Nicholas Jasinski

March 2, 2021


https://www.barrons.com/articles/rocket-lab-is-a-mini-spacex-that-investors-can-buy-today-51614692583?siteid=yhoof2


There’s a space company capturing the imagination of investors that engineers its own rockets, has launched dozens of satellites into orbit, and has planned missions to the Moon, Mars, and even Venus.

No, it isn’t SpaceX—it’s Rocket Lab USA. But there are many similarities between the two.

Rocket, for instance, plans to sell space-based services from its own constellation of internally built satellites. SpaceX plans to offer high-speed internet access from space using its own Starlink satellites.

Rocket Lab, like SpaceX, is focused on vertical integration in the fledgling space industry. The company wants to have its own launch capabilities, operate its own satellites, and provide services to other customers. “Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company,” CEO Peter Beck says.

Rocket Lab and SpaceX are the only private companies delivering launches today. Since its founding in 2014, Rocket Lab has completed 18 launches to space and deployed 97 satellites into orbit on behalf of more than 20 customers. It has a total of three launchpads in Virginia and New Zealand, each of which can handle 44 launches a year.

Rocket Lab’s in-use Electron rocket is for launching relatively small satellites into space. Its next planned vehicle is to be called Neutron, which will be a medium-lift rocket with an eight-ton payload capacity. That will be a direct competitor to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Rocket Lab expects 98% of satellites to be launched by 2029 to be lifted by one of those two rockets. Both have reusable components—which reduce the cost and turnaround time of a launch—and the Neutron rocket will also be able to carry human astronauts. It’s on track to be ready for use in 2024.

Rocket Lab’s third product is a satellite already orbiting earth called, naturally, Photon. The company has plans to send it to the Moon, Mars, and Venus. That’s a “turnkey satellite solution” designed and launched by Rocket Lab to save customers time and cost, says Beck. Rocket also refers to it as “satellite-as-a-service.” Rocket Lab adds the satellite as a free stowaway to its launches for other customers.

Rocket Lab is becoming a publicly traded company by merging with Vector Acquisition (ticker: VACQ). If approved by shareholders, that deal is expected to close in the second quarter, when Vector’s ticker symbol will convert to RKLB. Meanwhile, investors interested in space can, essentially, buy Rocket Lab stock now.

SpaceX was most recently valued at $74 billion, making it one of the most valuable aerospace and defense franchises on the globe. Based on where Vector stock closed on Monday—up 36%, to $13.95, with about 483 million postmerger shares—Rocket Lab stock is valued at about $6.7 billion. Its previous round of private funding valued the company at $1.4 billion.

The valuation difference might be an opportunity for growth investors. Rocket Lab expects to have close to $1.6 billion in revenue in 2027, up from a forecast of $69 million this year. By 2027, the company projects about $900 million in launch revenues and $700 million from its space systems.

Management expects Ebitda, short for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, to hit about $500 million in 2027 and sees the company first breaking even on a free cash flow basis in 2024.

That’s a lot of projected growth. Investors will have to decide if management’s forecasts will come to fruition.

“Rocket Lab is a once-in-a-generation company,” says Vector Acquisition’s CEO Alex Slusky, pointing to Rocket Lab’s existing technology and operations. “The company doesn’t just have a pipeline, which is an amorphous concept. It has a backlog, which is very concrete…And there’s a world of difference between having delivered dozens of launches with customers’ payloads versus having aspirations of one day completing your first launch.”

Slusky, who is the founder and CIO of private-equity firm Vector Capital (the SPAC’s sponsor), will join Rocket Labs’ board of directors once the merger closes. Vector Acquisition’s deal with Rocket Lab will provide the company with about $740 million in cash after expenses, coming from the SPAC’s $320 million trust and a $470 million PIPE from institutional investors including Vector Capital, BlackRock, and Neuberger Berman.

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>>> Boeing Stumbles Again With Weak Q1 Earnings


Despite the resumption of 737 MAX deliveries, the struggling aerospace company burned billions of dollars of cash once again.


Motley Fool

by Adam Levine-Weinberg

May 1, 2021


https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/05/01/boeing-stumbles-again-with-weak-q1-earnings/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article


If investors thought the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines and the recertification of the 737 MAX had put Boeing (NYSE:BA) in the clear, the aerospace giant's first-quarter earnings report disabused them of that notion. Indeed, Boeing posted another quarterly loss and continued bleeding cash rapidly. And while the 737 MAX family captured some much-needed orders last quarter, Boeing's revenue, earnings, and cash flow are unlikely to recover to the peak levels of a few years ago.

New problems, same result

For much of 2019 and 2020, the 737 MAX grounding and resulting halt in deliveries caused Boeing to lose money and burn cash rapidly. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 added to its woes by torpedoing demand for wide-body jets. Most notably, the company burned $6.6 billion over the last nine months of 2019 and another $19.7 billion in 2020.

In the first quarter of 2021, Boeing delivered 63 737s. While that's a far cry from its pre-crisis delivery pace, it represented a big improvement over 2019 and 2020.

Alas, a slew of quality problems for the 787 Dreamliner forced a multi-month delivery halt for Boeing's top-selling wide-body. The company delivered just two 787s in Q1, down from 29 a year earlier. As a result, total revenue fell 10% year over year to $15.2 billion last quarter -- including a 31% plunge in revenue from the commercial airplanes division -- despite the resumption of 737 MAX deliveries. Furthermore, Boeing recorded a core loss per share of $1.53 and burned another $3.7 billion of cash.

Boeing has finally resumed delivering 787s and hopes to deliver most of the roughly 100 787 Dreamliners in its inventory by year-end. On the other hand, it recently halted 737 MAX deliveries again due to newly identified electrical issues. Boeing does expect to implement a fix soon, enabling it to catch up to its previous 737 MAX delivery plan by the end of 2021.

Commercial aviation challenges aren't going away

Sooner or later, Boeing is likely to sort out the execution woes that have plagued its commercial airplanes unit recently. However, poor execution is just one facet of the division's problems.

First, regulators in China still haven't recertified the 737 MAX. That's particularly unfortunate, because the Chinese domestic air travel market has fully recovered from the pandemic. It also highlights the risk that Boeing could permanently lose market share to Airbus (OTC:EADSY) in this massive market as a casualty of ongoing trade tensions.

Second, the Boeing 737 MAX is unlikely to recover the market share it has lost to Airbus' A220 and A320neo families. Airbus' narrow-body backlog is nearly twice the size of Boeing's today. And while Boeing executives hope that recent 737 MAX orders in the U.S. are a harbinger of future orders abroad, very few foreign airlines have the financial strength of their U.S. counterparts. Even fewer have the same level of loyalty to Boeing.

Third, the wide-body market -- a big source of revenue and cash flow for Boeing as recently as 2019 -- will never recover to its former size. Order activity slowed dramatically long before the pandemic. Many long-haul airlines that were growing quickly a few years ago have retrenched or gone out of business. Most importantly, Airbus' upcoming A321XLR will offer unprecedented range and unit costs for a narrow-body jet. That may allow it to cannibalize a big chunk of the wide-body market over the next decade.

Better times ahead, but headwinds remain

The resumption of 787 Dreamliner and (hopefully) 737 MAX deliveries should help Boeing reduce its cash burn going forward. Even so, management doesn't expect the company to return to positive free cash flow until 2022. At that point, Boeing will have to start addressing a net debt position that now exceeds $40 billion (compared to just $1.1 billion at the beginning of 2018).

Moreover, it will have to pay down debt in 2022 and beyond with much less free cash flow than it enjoyed during the boom years of 2017 and 2018. As noted above, Boeing will have to settle for a lower share of the narrow-body market, while the wide-body market will be much smaller than it was previously.

To be fair, Boeing's defense unit is performing reasonably well. However, it isn't big enough to offset weakness in the commercial airplanes division. Before the 737 MAX was grounded, Boeing generated more than twice as much revenue from commercial jets as it did from its defense and space business -- and at higher margins, to boot.

In short, Boeing will be a smaller, more indebted, and less profitable company for the foreseeable future. With Boeing stock currently just 31% below where it stood three years ago -- during the company's peak period of profitability and cash flow -- investors have better opportunities elsewhere.

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>>> ARK Plans Space Exploration ETF


Yahoo Finance

January 14, 2021


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ark-plans-space-exploration-etf-170000868.html


ARK Funds, the biggest and most successful equity active manager in the ETF space, with almost $40 billion in U.S.-listed ETF assets spread across seven funds, put in registration this week a space-focused ETF, the ARK Space Exploration ETF (ARKX).

ETF filings typically don’t elicit this much excitement, but ARK’s massive success with funds such as the $21 billion ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) and its thematic siblings made ARKX the talk of the week—a filing that was said to have single-handedly boosted the whole space-related stock segment.

ARKX will have the same research-based, disruption-focused DNA that other ARK ETFs share. In the prospectus, ARK said this ETF will invest in U.S. and international space exploration companies that are innovating and disrupting products and services in this segment. ARKX is going to be a high-conviction portfolio for those seeking access to opportunities “beyond the surface of the Earth.”

ARKX will go head to head with funds such as the Procure Space ETF (UFO), which is a $44 million global aerospace and defense ETF, and the SPDR S&P Kensho Final Frontiers ETF (ROKT), which is a U.S.-focused index-based basket of companies engaged in space and deep sea exploration.

ARK has not disclosed planned fees for the fund, but all of its ETFs cost 0.75% in expense ratio, or $75 per $10,000 invested.

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Raytheon - >>> Even This Former Elevator Maker Needs Fewer Floors


Bloomberg

by Brooke Sutherland

October 27, 2020


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/even-former-elevator-maker-needs-174546891.html


The future of work at Raytheon Technologies Corp. is going to mean fewer people in offices and more robots on the factory floor.

The aerospace and defense giant on Tuesday reported third-quarter earnings and free cash flow that were better than analysts had expected, even as the recovery in the commercial side of its business continues at a snail’s pace. Raytheon reiterated its expectation that global air traffic won’t return to 2019 levels until at least 2023 — and that’s assuming the successful development and broad distribution of a coronavirus vaccine. “It's clearly not a V, all right? This is going to be a long, slow recovery,” Raytheon Chief Executive Officer Greg Hayes said on a call with analysts to discuss the results. “We continue to focus on what we can control.” That means building on expected cost savings from the merger between United Technologies Corp. and Raytheon Co. completed earlier this year. And then some.

The company had previously planned to consolidate its office space in light of the combination and was targeting a 10% reduction in its 31 million square feet of real estate. But after touring facilities where only a handful of people are now on-site and the rest are diligently (and productively) working remotely, Hayes came to the conclusion that “we don’t need all this space.” Raytheon now plans to double its previous goal and ultimately get rid of as much as 25% of its office square footage, starting with locations it currently leases.

Hayes probably isn’t the only executive to wonder if the pandemic-driven work-from-home revolution offers an opportunity for cost savings, but this shift feels more meaningful coming from a company that used to sell quite a lot of products to the commercial real estate market. In conjunction with the Raytheon merger, the former United Technologies also spun off its Otis Worldwide Corp. elevator unit and the Carrier Global Corp. heating and air conditioner division. Those businesses will suffer if more companies follow Raytheon’s lead and decide they, too, can function with significantly less office space.

Raytheon is also planning to consolidate some of its manufacturing real estate in lower-cost locations and reimagining what those factories should look like on the inside. The company highlighted a new turbine airfoil facility for its Pratt & Whitney jet-engine division that will be based in Asheville, North Carolina, and will combine work that’s now spread across multiple sites and throughout the supply chain. North Carolina’s flat corporate income tax rate of 2.5% is the lowest in the country among states that apply a levy, compared with a top marginal rate of 8% in Raytheon’s home state of Massachusetts, according to the right-leaning Tax Foundation. This new facility in North Carolina will be “highly automated,” and Raytheon expects to achieve $175 million in annual cost savings.

There’s been a lot of talk about a potential resurgence in U.S. manufacturing in the wake of the pandemic, whether that’s due to companies growing disillusioned with the benefits of far-flung supply chains and relocating facilities back home or the prospects of a major infrastructure spending push by the government. Raytheon’s commentary on Tuesday underscores why the jobs component of these initiatives is far from straightforward. As I’ve written, companies are going to be reluctant to give up the cost cuts they achieved in the pandemic, and it’s likely that many of the jobs eliminated during the peak of the disruption might never come back. A “reshoring” of manufacturing work from China to the U.S. — to the extent it actually happens — seems more likely to spark a golden age for automation.

To that end, Raytheon said Tuesday that only about half of the 15,000 jobs being cut from its commercial aerospace businesses would return once demand eventually recovers. “We’ve got to keep the other 50% from coming back, and that's what's going to give us leverage on the upside when we do indeed see a return to normalcy in air traffic,” Hayes said. Much of the reduction will come from eliminating layers of management and overlap in centralized functions like procurement. “It should lead to, long term, a much more efficient organization,” he added.

All in, Raytheon is eliminating roughly 20,000 jobs this year, including 4,000 contractor positions and 1,000 previously expected adjustments because of the merger. And this is coming from a company that had $10 billion of cash on its balance sheet at the end of the third quarter and sees the current crisis as an opportunity to invest in next-generation technology and gain more market share. “You have to invest for the long term,” Hayes said. Indeed, just not in people or office space, apparently.

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>>> Is TransDigm Stock a Buy?


The aerospace stock commands a valuation premium, but is it justified in the current environment?


Motley Fool

Lee Samaha

Oct 27, 2020


https://finance.yahoo.com/m/9d8c0893-135a-36be-a7fa-bf75cbe9b46e/is-transdigm-stock-a-buy%3F.html?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article&yptr=yahoo


Shareholders in aerospace-focused companies have had to endure a difficult year, and it's not over yet. The coronavirus pandemic hit the commercial aviation industry hard, and the recovery is proving more sluggish then most commentators expected in the spring.

That said, aerospace supplier TransDigm (NYSE:TDG) has long been regarded as one of the best run companies in the industry and provides investors with a useful option to play a recovery, albeit a slow one. Let's take a closer look at the company.

TransDigm

With its industry-leading operating margin and a track record of growing earnings for investors, TransDigm stands out as a high-quality option for investing in the sector. As such, there's a case for arguing that the company is a good way to get exposure to the potential for a slow recovery in the aerospace market.

However, there are a few considerations that investors need to take before buying the stock:

Is the excellent track record of generating returns for investors largely a consequence of being a highly acquisitive company in a bull market? If so, what happens if end-market growth becomes sluggish?

TransDigm's margins are sky-high, but could they come under threat in a market slowdown likely to intensify competition?

Why should TransDigm's valuation be higher than it was before the pandemic spread?

How does TransDigm stack up against other aerospace suppliers like Heico or Raytheon Technologies?

Earnings growth and margin

The secret behind TransDigm's margins can be found in its business model. In the company's SEC filings, it said, "90% of our net sales for fiscal year 2019 were generated by proprietary products" and "we estimate that we generated approximately 80% of our net sales from products in which we are the sole source provider."

Once these proprietary products are established on an aircraft, they tend to generate substantive amounts of aftermarket revenue -- some 52% of the company's sales in 2019 came from aftermarket products.

Moreover, TransDigm tends to sell a plethora of relatively small ticket items -- at least when compared with, say, Raytheon Technologies' aircraft engines, cabins, and flight deck solutions or Boeing's aircraft -- and this kind of niche-market provision lends itself to good margin performance.

The glass is half empty

On the other hand, TransDigm's margin is clearly there to be attacked, and in a weak market, the distributors and airlines that make up a large part of the company's customer base may well be more focused on cost-cutting in the future. For reference, Boeing is responsible for 11% of TransDigm sales via a distributor company it owns.

Moreover, if a valuation premium is built into the stock price as a result of TransDigm's history of earnings growth, then the premium could disappear if that earnings growth starts to stall. Let's put it this way: The company has been a niche market consolidator in a bull market -- a great thing when aerospace product demand keeps going up -- but it's fair to argue that if a bear market ensues, it makes sense for the market to take away that valuation premium.

Furthermore, it would be a mistake to ascribe a valuation premium to TransDigm's history of acquisitions. Making ongoing acquisitions is wonderful in a bull market -- deals can often look like a great value in a few years -- but it's the reverse process in a bear market.

Valuation and other investment options

There's little doubt that TransDigm, alongside fellow acquisitive company Heico, is priced at a premium in the sector. For example, here's a comparison based on enterprise value (EV), which is market cap plus net debt, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).

Moreover, the following table of Wall Street Analyst estimates for EV/EBITDA multiples shows that it won't be until 2022 that TransDigm starts to trade within the 16 times to 18 times the multiples it's been on in recent years. Meanwhile, another pure aerospace and defense company, Raytheon Technologies, looks like a much better value.

Company 2019 2020 2021

Raytheon Technologies (NYSE:RTX) 11.5x 12.6x 10.3x
TransDigm (NYSE:TDG) 17.9x 18.6x 18.5x
Heico (NYSE:HEI) 27.4x 31.3x 28.5x

DATA SOURCE: MARKETSCREENER.COM

Is TransDigm a stock to buy?

All told, aerospace-related stocks should trade at a discount to previous valuations to reflect the increased risk around growth prospects in the sector. However, TransDigm trades at a premium, on both current and forward expectations. That's something hard to justify in the current environment. Furthermore, other investment options in the aerospace sector, such as Raytheon Technologies, are a better value right now. As such, TransDigm is one for the watch list rather than a buy right now.

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Honeywell - >>> This Stock Is the Best Way to Invest in Aerospace

The business aviation market is holding up a lot better than the mainstream commercial market.


Motley Fool

Lee Samaha

Oct 16, 2020


https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/10/16/this-stock-the-best-way-to-invest-in-aerospace/


It's no secret that the recovery in the aerospace market took a step back over the summer, but that doesn't mean that there aren't pockets of relative strength. One such area is the business jet market, and Honeywell's (NYSE:HON) latest Global Business Aviation Outlook helps to highlight the case that the stock is the best way to gain exposure to aerospace. Here's why.

The Global Business Aviation Outlook

The company states that its outlook is created using a combination of macroeconomic analyses, discussions with industry leaders, and, most importantly, "original equipment manufacturers' production and development plans shared with the company."

The key takeaways from the outlook imply that the business jet and general aviation market is in a lot better shape than mainstream commercial aviation.

Business jet usage

First, business jet usage is expected to be at 80%-85% of 2019 levels in the fourth quarter of 2020 and will be at 2019 levels by the summer of 2021. Contrast this with the International Air Transport Association expectation that commercial air traffic will be down 66% in 2020 compared to 2019, and a full recovery to 2019 levels won't occur until 2024.

In short, the business jet market is recovering much more quickly than the commercial aviation market in general, and the recession is far less deep in business aviation.

Business jet deliveries

Second, up to 7,300 business jet deliveries are expected to be made in 2021-2030, a figure down just 4% from the comparable forecast made last year. This compares favorably with Boeing's recent market outlook, which calls for demand for 18,350 commercial airplanes over the next decade, a reduction of 11% versus its comparable forecast last year.

In other words, business aviation spending plans remain largely on track, but it will be a few years before commercial aviation recovers. Moreover, 80% of business jet operators surveyed by Honeywell said their plans had not been affected by COVID-19.

Forecast growth rates

Third, the forecast to 2030 assumes a 4%-5% annual growth rate of deliveries, a figure slighter higher than last year's estimate due to the assumption of a sharp recovery from the significant contraction in 2020.

It's difficult to compare this figure with Boeing's recent forecast because the commercial aviation market is going to decline considerably more than business aviation will in 2020, making growth comparisons difficult. That said, Honeywell's forecast looks reasonable, and Boeing's forecast for commercial passenger air traffic to grow by an annual rate of 3.7% from 2019-2029 seems to be implying a high-single-digit growth rate from 2025-2029 given expectation for a recovery to 2019 levels by 2024.

Honeywell's business jet exposure

All of which leads investors to start to look at Honeywell as the best placed of the three aviation supply giants (GE and Raytheon Technologies are the others) in the current environment.

Honeywell's aerospace segment was responsible for 39% of total company sales and 45% of segment profit in 2019, so it obviously has heavy exposure to aerospace. However, breaking out the company's revenue by business activity reveals that its commercial aviation (which includes business and regional jets) activity only accounted for 24% of revenue in 2019.

Examining the data closer shows that business and general aviation accounted for around a third of overall commercial aviation revenue. In a nutshell, business and general aviation made up around 8% of total company revenue compared to rest of Honeywell's commercial aviation revenue at 16%.

Chart showing Honeywell's revenue by business in 2019.





Growth prospects

All told, business aviation matters to Honeywell, and when coupled with defense and space revenue, it's clear that around 60% of Honeywell's aerospace revenue comes from relatively safe areas.

Furthermore, many of Honeywell's solutions for the business jet market are in areas of secular growth, like its JetWave inflight Wi-Fi and flight planning and communications solution GoDirect. These are both products that can grow by being sold into the existing fleet of aircraft.

In addition, other parts of Honeywell's overall portfolio have good prospects, too. For example, its safety and productivity solutions (SPS) segment looks primed for growth, led by its warehouse automation business, Intelligrated.

Meanwhile, an improvement in automotive production and light vehicle traffic will help its performance materials and technologies (PMT) segment via increased demand for refrigerants in vehicles and refining catalysts and absorbents (fuels). And finally, management believes it has a future growth opportunity in its Honeywell Building Technologies (HBT) business via an increased customer awareness around the need to keep buildings safe and clean.

A stock to buy

Honeywell's business aviation outlook is encouraging and should help allay investors' fears over the risk in its aerospace segment. As such, the company is probably the safest way to invest in the aerospace sector right now. Meanwhile, the other parts of Honeywell's portfolio should start to improve in step with an economic recovery. The stock remains attractive for investors.

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>>> Honeywell Buys Ballard Power's Drones Division

Also news: Ballard Power had a drones division?!


Motley Fool

Rich Smith

Oct 15, 2020


https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/10/15/honeywell-buys-ballard-powers-drones-division/


Canadian fuel cell pioneer Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ:BLDP) is getting out of the drones business. Admittedly, Ballard Power is much better known for building zero emission proton exchange membrane fuel cell systems to power electric forklifts and buses (and cars, trucks, trains, and boats too). But apparently, Ballard also had a business devoted to designing very small fuel cell power systems for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as well.

Until all of a sudden, it didn't.

In a press release this morning, Ballard announced that industrial giant Honeywell (NYSE:HON) has purchased all of the "business assets" of Ballard's "UAV subsidiary" for a price that Ballard declined to disclose. (Note: When a business does not disclose the price, this implies that it is not "material" -- and not much).

Ballard CEO Randy MacEwen explained that although Ballard still believes that fuel cells remain a viable solution to powering UAVs, it has decided that drones are "non-core" to its business. Going forward, Ballard promises to continue "a long-term strategic collaboration" with Honeywell as the latter continues to develop its own fuel cell-powered drone models. As for Ballard, however, it intends to "focus on the Heavy- and Medium-Duty Motive markets of bus, truck, train and marine."

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>>> Airbus unveils hydrogen plane concepts it hopes are flying in 15 years

Airbus' three ZEROe concept aircraft would all be powered by hydrogen, which is says would combine with other technologies and aerodynamic designs to help achieve zero-emission passenger flight by 2035.


By Daniel McCoy

Reporter, Wichita Business Journal

Sep 21, 2020


https://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/news/2020/09/21/airbus-unveils-hydrogen-planes.html


In a move that could mean both design and manufacturing opportunities for Wichita, Airbus on Monday unveiled concepts for zero-emission passenger aircraft it hopes could enter service by 2035.

The company said in a press release that each would be powered by hydrogen and incorporate multiple new technologies and aerodynamic configurations to help achieve the zero-emission goal.

“This is a historic moment for the commercial aviation sector as a whole and we intend to play a leading role in the most important transition this industry has ever seen,” said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury. “The concepts we unveil today offer the world a glimpse of our ambition to drive a bold vision for the future of zero-emission flight.”

The concepts include turbofan and turboprop versions, as well as a 200-passenger blended-wing aircraft.

While much will still need to be done to hit its 2035 goal — not the least of which are investments against the backstop of financial strain in the industry due to Covid-19 and the airport infrastructure needed for hydrogen refueling — the concepts could hold chances for Wichita to play a role.

The city is home to Airbus Americas Engineering, which, along with supporting all the commercial aircraft in Airbus’ existing fleet, has in recent years leveraged the resources at it home on the Innovation Campus at Wichita State University to quickly develop new components for its European parent.

On the production side, Wichita-based Spirit AeroSystems Inc. has work on all of the aircraft in Airbus’ commercial backlog, which is done mainly at plants in North Carolina and the U.K.

But Spirit (NYSE: SPR) has been intentional about wanting to grow its Airbus portfolio and could be a prime candidate for any new structures or possibly more needed for new aircraft.

“These concepts will help us explore and mature the design and layout of the world’s first climate-neutral, zero-emission commercial aircraft, which we aim to put into service by 2035,” Faury said. “The transition to hydrogen, as the primary power source for these concept planes, will require decisive action from the entire aviation ecosystem. Together with the support from government and industrial partners, we can rise up to this challenge to scale up renewable energy and hydrogen for the sustainable future of the aviation industry.”

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>>> The Air Force Secretly Designed, Built, and Flew a Brand-New Fighter Jet


Popular Mechanics

by Kyle Mizokami

September 16, 2020


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/air-force-secretly-designed-built-130400768.html


The U.S. Air Force announced it has already flown a new prototype fighter.




We know virtually nothing about the new plane ... other than it exists.
Most observers did not expect a new fighter for another decade.
The U.S. Air Force revealed this week that it has secretly designed, built, and tested a new prototype fighter jet. The fighter, about which we know virtually nothing, has already flown and “broken records.” (The image above is Air Force concept art from 2018). The Air Force must now consider how it will buy the new fighter as it struggles to acquire everything from intercontinental ballistic missiles to bombers.

The Air Force’s head of acquisition, Will Roper, made the announcement yesterday in an exclusive interview with Defense News, in conjunction with the Air Force Association’s virtual Air, Space, and Cyber Conference.

The Air Force built the new fighter under its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, which aims to build a jet that would supplement, and perhaps even replace, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.

The Air Force built 186 Raptors, of which only about 123 are capable of the jet’s full spectrum of combat roles. And at current readiness levels, only around 64 of the fifth-generation fighters are ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

According to Defense News, the Air Force developed the new fighter in about a year—a staggeringly short amount of time by modern standards. The Air Force first developed a virtual version of the jet, and then proceeded to build and fly a full-sized prototype, complete with mission systems. This is in stark contrast to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The X-35, an early technology demonstrator, first flew in 2000, four years after Lockheed Martin signed the contract to build it. It might be better, however to compare this new mystery jet to the first actual F-35 fighter, which flew in 2006.

That means it took the Air Force just one year to get to the point with NGAD fighter that it reached in 10 years with the F-35. This appears to be the "record" the Air Force claims the new plane is smashing, and it's probably right.

We don’t know which defense contractor designed and prototyped the new jet, though it's almost certainly one of the big aerospace giants (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing). We don’t know where it flew and where it is now. We don’t know how many prototypes exist. We don’t know what it looks like, what it's called, how fast it flies, how maneuverable it is, and what special capabilities it has. We don’t know anything.

So what do we do when we don’t know anything? Speculate wildly!

The Air Force designed the NGAD to ensure the service’s “air dominance” in future conflicts versus the fighters of potential adversaries. The new fighter, then, is almost certainly optimized for air-to-air combat. It’s a safe bet the fighter uses off-the-shelf avionics, engines, and weapons borrowed from other aircraft, such as the F-35 and F/A-18E/F. In fact, NGAD may look a lot like one of these fighters, though if the Air Force wanted a stealthy design to riff off, there’s only one (F-35) currently in production.

The most interesting, and perhaps revolutionary, thing about NGAD is that the Air Force developed and built it in just one year. The world hasn’t seen such a short development time since World War II. In fact, the trend has been for fighters to require longer, more expensive development times as technology becomes more complex—particularly with the adoption of stealth.

China’s Chengdu J-20 fighter, for example, broke cover in 2011 after at least 10 years of development time, while Russia's Sukhoi Su-57 “Felon” fighter still hasn't entered production, despite the fact that we first saw it in 2010.

The possibility that a 10-year development cycle has been sheared to just one year presents unprecedented opportunities. If the Air Force and industry can design a new fighter in one year, it could come up with all sorts of cool new planes.

This could encourage the development of more exotic, riskier designs that contractors would not otherwise want to devote a full decade to develop. The ability to fail—or succeed—faster will drive innovation in the world of fighter jets in ways not seen for a half century or more.

One thing we can be reasonably sure about the new NGAD fighter? It’s designed to kill fighters like the J-20 and Su-57.

The Air Force first conceived the F-22 Raptor in the late 1980s and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in the 1990s. China and Russia built the J-20 and Su-57, respectively, with the F-22 and F-35 in mind, while the American fighters would have to adapt their existing capabilities to face the new Russian and Chinese fighters. But thanks to the Air Force’s new breakthrough design techniques, we could see a new, operational fighter to dominate these potential adversaries very, very shortly.

Still, NGAD enters a crowded shopping basket. Over the next 10 years, the Air Force is committed to buying and developing, if necessary, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, F-15EX Advanced Eagle, B-21 Raider strategic bomber, T-7 Red Hawk jet trainer, KC-46 Pegasus tanker, and Ground Based Strategic Deterrent ballistic missile.

How will it pay for all of them? That's to be determined. But given the Air Force’s bent toward air-to-air fighters, it seems certain NGAD will advance to the top of that list.

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Lockheed Martin - >>> If You're Retired, Consider Buying These 3 Stocks

Not only do these companies have stable businesses with growing dividend payouts, they can also beat the market.


Motley Fool

by Jon Quast

Aug 31, 2020


https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/08/31/if-youre-retired-consider-buying-these-3-stocks/


Investors assign labels to companies at the risk of creating false dichotomies. For example, "growth stocks" and "value stocks" are two prevalent categories, but these ideals aren't necessarily opposed.

Another misleading label is "retirement stock." On the surface, it typically suggests a company with a stable business paying a healthy dividend. And that's a great goal. But a retirement investment doesn't have to come at the expense of giving up any chance of beating the market average. Instead, there are stocks that offer the complete package of income and growth.

For three companies fitting this description, consider Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), Home Depot (NYSE:HD), and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX). All three have stable businesses, growing dividend payouts yielding at least 2%, and long histories of market-beating performance.


Lockheed Martin

Under President Trump, government contractor Lockheed Martin has benefited from increased military spending. The company had $46 billion in net sales in 2015. In 2019, that figure was $60 billion, up around 30%. It used its record-setting results to continue rewarding shareholders by buying back stock and paying a growing dividend that currently yields 2.4%.

Even though Lockheed Martin has benefited under the current administration, investors don't need to fret about the upcoming election. Every president brings an agenda to the national budget, but the implementation can take years. Furthermore, the company can endure Pentagon budget cuts because it provides certain products and services that aren't in danger of being cut. And the contractor had a record backlog of $150 billion as of the second quarter of 2020. This is already under contract and will be realized over the course of years.

Besides that existing backlog, Lockheed Martin has inked a $62 billion deal to manufacture F-16 fighter jets for U.S. allies. This decade-long tailwind isn't reliant on domestic budget decisions. Additionally, new CEO James Taiclet believes the company has something to offer in the development of 5G technology, which could even provide an unforeseen growth avenue.

In short, Lockheed Martin's core business is safe, it has new avenues for growth, and I expect it will keep rewarding shareholders over the next five years as it's done over the previous five.


Home Depot

I consider Home Depot's business safe because it sells products for something virtually everyone has: a home. We all live somewhere, and whether it's regular maintenance or cosmetic upgrades, we incur costs somewhere. The company has a broad application, equally appealing to the professional contractor and the do-it-yourself customer. And as this stable business keeps humming, management has systematically reduced the outstanding share count (boosting per-share profits) and regularly increased the dividend.

We may be in a global pandemic, but Home Depot is thriving like never before. In the quarter ending Aug. 2, the company had record quarterly sales of $38 billion, up 23% year over year. And in the first half of 2020, net sales are up 16%, as people stuck at home decide to tackle their to-do lists.

It's not realistic to expect the good times to keep rolling like this for Home Depot. As to-do items get checked off, customers are likely to decrease these spending levels in coming quarters. Furthermore, the company benefited from inflation in items like lumber, which are probably only temporary spikes resulting from the coronavirus disruption to supply chains. These are headwinds facing Home Depot's year-over-year comparisons.

But it's also not realistic to expect Home Depot's business to fall off a cliff -- only return to normal. And under normal conditions, Home Depot grows revenue, grows profits, and grows its dividend. While I think both Lowe's and Home Depot are winners, I acknowledge Home Depot's dividend yield is superior at 2%, versus 1.4% for Lowe's.


Starbucks

As a global food-service company, Starbucks was hit particularly hard by the coronavirus. Through the first three quarters of its fiscal 2020, net revenue is down 12.4% from the comparable period in fiscal 2019. The impact was most acute in the third quarter, with net revenue down 38%. But despite the challenge of limited cafe seating, Starbucks didn't pause or reduce its dividend.

The worst is hopefully over for Starbucks. It started Q3 with 56% of U.S. locations closed, but ended the quarter with 96% open. That led to a steady improvement in sales. In fact, comparable sales at U.S. locations that were open for the entire quarter were actually up 2% year over year in July, suggesting business will return to normal soon after everything's back open.

Starbucks has been a massive winner over the long haul, a 100-bagger since 1994. But of the three stocks here, Starbucks is the one that has underperformed the market over the last five years. Buying today gives retirees a stock still down 15% from highs set in 2019, with great growth prospects. The company looks like a buy as it opens new locations in China again after a brief pause, and as it pursues better profits in the U.S. by closing low-volume locations and replacing them with operations that are to-go only.

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>>> Boeing 737 Max Return To Service Picks Up More Momentum As Key Regulator Completes Tests


Investor's Business Daily

by GILLIAN RICH

08/28/2020


A Canadian regulator completed Boeing 737 Max simulator and test flights, a further step in returning the grounded jet to service. Boeing (BA) stock rose.

Transport Canada began test flights Wednesday and told Reuters Friday that it is the first international regulator to complete validation testing of Boeing 737 Max and is now analyzing the results.

Meanwhile, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said Thursday that the agency would start the 737 Max test flights in Vancouver, Canada, the week of Sept. 7.

"While Boeing still has some final actions to close off, EASA judges the overall maturity of the redesign process is now sufficient to proceed to flight tests," according to the release.

The jet completed the Federal Aviation Administration's certification flight tests in early July. In August, the agency outlined a proposed airworthiness directive that will require Boeing and airlines to meet certain conditions before the jet can return to flight.

Shares rose 0.9% to close at 175.80 on the stock market today, after retaking their 50-day average earlier this week, according to MarketSmith chart analysis. Top Boeing 737 Max supplier Spirit AeroSystems (SPR) added 1.6%, and engine supplier General Electric (GE) climbed 2%.

Worst Over For Boeing 737 Max?

The latest test flights have been a long time coming. The Boeing 737 Max has been grounded since March 2019, following a second deadly crash.

CEO Dave Calhoun said during the second-quarter earnings call that he expects approval from global regulators will be obtained in time to support the resumption of deliveries of the jet during Q4.

Carriers have been canceling orders of the 737 Max and deferring deliveries as the coronavirus pandemic has obliterated summer travel.

But analysts say that the aerospace industry has been through the worst of the turbulence. Moody's raised its global aerospace and defense outlook to stable from negative. Still, it expects "commercial aircraft demand will remain weak into 2023."

"We forecast operating profit to fall by 42% in 2020 but rise by 72% in 2021, reflecting the second-quarter 2020 trough and resumption of 737 Max deliveries."

Last week, the Boeing 737 Max received its first order of the year. Polish airline Enter Air ordered two of the jets with an option for two more. Boeing notably called the plane the "737-8," dropping the "Max" moniker.

But Boeing is still seeing a major 737 Max deficit as customers have canceled 350 orders in the first half of the year.

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>>> Sierra Nevada Corporation


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Nevada_Corporation


SNC logo.png
Type Private
Industry Aerospace
Founded 1963
Headquarters Sparks, Nevada, U.S.[1]
Key people Fatih Ozmen, CEO; Eren Ozmen, President
Products Spacecraft
Telemedicine
Navigation and Guidance
Information Management
C4ISR
Electronic Protection
Cybersecurity
Number of employees 4,000 (2019)[2]
Website sncorp.com
Part of a series on
Private spaceflight

Active companies

ArianespaceAxiom SpaceARCAspaceAstraBigelow AerospaceBlue OriginCopenhagen SuborbitalsNorthrop GrummanRocket LabSierra Nevada CorporationSpaceXVirgin GalacticVirgin OrbitPLD SpaceFirefly Aerospace

Flown vehicles

Antares (rocket)Ariane 1Ariane 2Ariane 3Ariane 4Ariane 5CygnusSpaceX Dragon 2ElectronFalcon 1Falcon 9Falcon HeavyNew ShepardPegasusSpaceX Dragon

Contracts and programs

Ansari X PrizeCommercial Crew DevelopmentCommercial Resupply ServicesGoogle Lunar X PrizeSpaceX Mars transportation infrastructureSpaceX reusable launch system development program
RocketSunIcon.svg Spaceflight portal
vte

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is an American, privately held aerospace and national security contractor specializing in aircraft modification and integration, space components and systems, and commercial solutions. The company contracts with the United States Armed Forces, NASA and private spaceflight companies.[1] SNC is headquartered in Sparks, Nevada and has 33 locations in 19 U.S. states, United Kingdom, Germany and Turkey.[1]

As of July 2020, SNC was in the process of completing its 14th mission to Mars. The 14th mission will be completed once Perseverance lands on Mars in February 2021.[3] Some of the company's more notable achievements include 400+ space missions with 100% mission success and building the cargo Dream Chaser, which will resupply the International Space Station with both pressurized and unpressurized cargo.[4][5]

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>>> Why the Boeing vs. Airbus Fight Is Coming to a Head


Bloomberg

By Bryce Baschuk

August 12, 2020


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-31/why-the-boeing-vs-airbus-fight-is-coming-to-a-head-quicktake?srnd=premium


Making airplanes is one of the most prestigious things countries can do, a testimony to their technical skills, engineering prowess and aspirations on the world stage. It can be a source of national pride, but also a flashpoint. Nothing illustrates this more than the global rivalry of Boeing Co. and Airbus SE, the Coke and Pepsi of the skies. An almost-16-year-old trade dispute is coming to a head as the U.S. and European Union prepare to launch a barrage of tariffs, subject to a further World Trade Organization ruling, on each other’s exports.

1. What’s the fight about?

State aid, the increasingly common practice of governments doling out support to key manufacturers or industries. In 2004 the U.S. lodged a WTO legal case against the EU for its member state support to Airbus. In 2011 the WTO ruled that the EU provided Airbus with billions of dollars of illegal subsidized financing that enabled Airbus to launch its widebodied and short-haul planes. The EU opened a parallel case against the U.S. that argued Boeing benefited from state subsidies as well as space and military contracts, which defrayed the cost of civilian aircraft development. In 2012 the WTO determined Boeing had received at least $5.3 billion in illegal U.S. aid. The cases continued to wind their way through the WTO dispute process until 2019, when the WTO authorized the U.S. to retaliate with tariffs against $7.5 billion worth of EU exports. Due to a timing lag, the WTO won’t issue a retaliation award in the EU’s complaint about Boeing until sometime this fall.

2. Why is this flaring up now?

The U.S. is stepping up pressure on Germany and France with extra tariffs on some of their goods, a move designed to squeeze the European Union into settling the dispute. The EU, meanwhile, is awaiting WTO authorization to impose levies on $11.2 billion of U.S. products. In 2019, the WTO said the U.S. continued to provide illegal subsidies to Boeing via a Washington state preferential tax scheme that disadvantaged Airbus. The U.S. subsequently said it complied with the ruling after the state ended its tax rate reduction for Boeing, but the WTO has not yet confirmed the U.S. claim.

3. What kind of state aid did Airbus and Boeing get?

The governments of Germany, France, Spain and the U.K. provided Airbus with subsidies via launch-aid loans for aircraft development, equity infusions, debt forgiveness and various other financial contributions. The U.S. government provided Boeing with subsidies via federal research and development funding, state and local tax programs and infrastructure-related funding. Both the U.S. and EU allege that the other’s measures fail to adhere to the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, which governs the use of state aid programs.

4. Why are these companies so important to their governments?

For more than 20 years Boeing and Airbus have maintained a duopoly in the large civil aircraft market, which is being squeezed as the Covid-19 pandemic reduces demand for new planes. Sales are commercially and politically important because they support thousands of jobs and represent a critical component of Europe and America’s overall trade balance. Geopolitical rivalry is baked into the relationship between the two companies. Airbus was created half a century ago as a consortium bringing together the resources of European aerospace companies including France’s Aerospatiale, Germany’s Deutsche Airbus and Construcciones Aeronauticas SA of Spain. The political, industrial and technological aim was to challenge the dominance of U.S. passenger jet manufacturers: Boeing with its 707, 737 and 747 models, McDonnell Douglas with the DC-8, DC-9 and DC-10 range and Lockheed with its three-engined Tristar.

5. Could this be resolved without more tariffs?

Airbus said on July 24 it had agreed to make changes to the repayable launch aid from France and Spain for the A350 jet to remove justification for U.S. tariffs against European goods. The EU swiftly demanded that the U.S. scrap its punitive tariffs. EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan urged the U.S. to negotiate a settlement and reiterated the EU’s intention to retaliate against American goods if agreement cannot be reached.

6. What is the U.S. end game?

The U.S.’s original goal was to thwart launch aid financing for the Airbus A350 XWB -- the rival to Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. But Airbus has delivered more than 360 A350 XWB aircraft to date. At this point the only real benefit the U.S. can obtain, aside from applying retaliatory tariffs on European exports, is to prevent European launch aid financing for any new Airbus series at non-market rates. This could be a hollow victory, however, as the state of the airline industry has reduced the incentive for Airbus to develop new aircraft series in the near future. Both sides say they want to reach a settlement, potentially in the form of a new bilateral aircraft accord.

The Reference Shelf

A story on the EU pressing the U.S. to settle the dispute on aircraft subsidies.

An article on Airbus’s new A321XLR single-aisle longer-range jet.

A QuickTake on why state aid is spreading again in the pandemic era.

A book on “Boeing versus Airbus: The Inside Story of the Greatest International Competition in Business,” by John Newhouse.

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>>> Meet 'Tenacity': 1st Dream Chaser space plane gets a name


Space.com

By Nola Taylor Redd

8-12-20


Tenacity is scheduled to launch for the first time in late 2021.





The first orbital Dream Chaser space plane recently got its wings, and a name.

Dream Chaser, which is built by Colorado-based company Sierra Nevada Corp., is the world's only non-capsule private orbital spacecraft. The winged vehicle will launch vertically atop a rocket but end its missions with runway landings, like NASA's now-retired space shuttle orbiters used to do.

This spring, the company unboxed the wings for the first operational Dream Chaser vehicle, bringing it one step closer to delivering supplies and science to and from the International Space Station. Sierra Nevada also announced the spacecraft's name: Tenacity.

This reporter had the opportunity to visit Sierra Nevada's Louisville, Colorado, production facility in March to get a sneak peek at the space plane. At that time, Tenacity's wings remained boxed up, but the space plane was still a sight to behold.

"It's an SUV for space — a Space Utility Vehicle," said Kimberly Schwandt, Sierra Nevada's communications director.

Tenacity is scheduled to launch for the first time in late 2021, aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Once it's up and running, the space plane will carry cargo to and from the space station for NASA. Dream Chaser's runway landings will allow efficient retrieval and removal of scientific gear coming back to Earth, which will also enjoy a relatively smooth ride down to the ground, Sierra Nevada representatives said.

"The gentle landing protects science," Schwandt said.

Tenacity of flight

Dream Chaser was originally designed to carry people, and Sierra Nevada won several rounds of funding from NASA's Commercial Crew Program to develop the vehicle. However, the company lost out to Boeing and SpaceX when NASA awarded astronaut-ferrying contracts in 2014.

But in 2016, NASA selected the space plane for its Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract, awarding Sierra Nevada a contract to fly six uncrewed cargo missions to the space station by 2024.

Sierra Nevada needed to change out only about 20% of Dream Chaser's module to transition from a passenger vehicle to a cargo plane, said Anna Hare, a company communications representative.

Sierra Nevada therefore hasn't ruled out a crew-carrying future for the space plane at some point. "To go back to a crew ship wouldn't be so hard," Hare said.

Dream Chaser by itself can carry roughly 2,000 lbs. (900 kilograms) of supplies and cargo on board. A 16-foot-tall (4.9 meters) cargo module called Shooting Star can be attached to the space plane to provide an additional 10,000 lbs. (4,500 kg) of carrying capability.

After cargo is loaded onto the space station, astronauts can fill the Shooting Star with their trash. As Tenacity re-enters Earth's atmosphere, the Shooting Star will detach and disintegrate.

Because Dream Chaser carries relatively safe propellant, technicians can approach it quickly after landing. The back of the plane opens, providing rapid access to precious cargo. That can be key when the cargo is science experiments meant to operate in the low gravity of space.

"When the capsule sits on Earth, you kind of lose science," Schwandt said.

The space plane itself flies fully automated, without the requirement of a human pilot. My recent tour revealed a simulated cockpit that allowed technicians to practice handling the plane, as well as flying it.

According to Hare, Tenacity's initial flight most likely won't be full, giving the space plane a chance to stretch its wings. "But after that, we intend to fill the whole vehicle up with cargo," she said.

Eventually, Sierra Nevada would like to have more Dream Chasers join Tenacity in traveling to and from space. However, expanding the number of operational space planes depends on customer demand.

"Our dream is to have a whole fleet of space planes," Schwandt said.

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>>> Virgin Galactic, NASA to develop program for private missions to space station


Reuters

June 22, 2020


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/virgin-galactic-nasa-develop-program-114313563.html


(Reuters) - Billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc <SPCE.N> said on Monday it has signed up with NASA to develop a program to promote private missions to the International Space Station (ISS), sending the shares of the company up about 16%.

As part of its agreement with the Johnson Space Center, the space tourism company will identify candidates interested in buying tickets for private rides to space in orbital-grade vehicles from other companies, and develop training packages under its "astronaut readiness program."

The company competes with billionaire-backed ventures such as Amazon.com Inc's <AMZN.O> Blue Origin that are vying to usher in a new era of space tourism, racing to be the first to offer sub-orbital flights to civilian space travelers.

Virgin Galactic offers zero-gravity experiences to customers with its centerpiece SpaceShipTwo plane and has long-term point-to-point travel plans to quickly transport passengers from city to city at near-space altitudes.

This is the second agreement between Virgin Galactic and the U.S. space agency. In May, the two entered an agreement to develop 'high-Mach' aircraft for potential civilian use.

For NASA, the private partnerships are helping it revive its own human space missions. Last month, Elon Musk's SpaceX ended NASA's nine-year hiatus by delivering two astronauts to the ISS.

The space agency is leaning heavily on private companies built around shared visions for space exploration, as it gears up for a long-term presence on the moon and prepares for a manned mission to Mars.

Shares of Virgin Galactic closed at $17.39.

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>>> The Criticized Raytheon-United Technologies Deal Looks Smart Now

The pandemic has slammed the commercial aerospace business, but defense spending remains robust.


Bloomberg

June 8, 2020


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-08/raytheon-and-united-technologies-merger-looks-pretty-smart?srnd=premium


Around this time last year, United Technologies Corp. and Raytheon Co. announced their plans to create an aerospace and defense behemoth with about $75 billion in sales. In short order, activist investor Bill Ackman declared he couldn’t “comprehend the strategic logic” of pairing the UTC airplane parts divisions with Raytheon weapons businesses that he deemed “of inferior quality.” Fellow UTC shareholder Dan Loeb followed with his own blast, calling the deal “ill-conceived” and “motivated by empire building.”

Today, shareholders have to be feeling pretty grateful they didn’t listen to Ackman or Loeb and instead approved the all-stock deal that created Raytheon Technologies Corp. earlier this year.

The argument against the merger was that it would turn United Technologies back into a conglomerate just after it had at long last agreed to unwind its sprawling structure through the spinoffs of its Carrier climate control and Otis elevator units. That critique felt off the mark: Sure, jet engines and missiles are different businesses, but the markets are complementary, have similar capital requirements and profit margins, and are followed by many of the same Wall Street analysts. In an interview at last year’s Paris Air Show, Toby O’Brien—now chief financial officer of Raytheon Technologies—cast the deal as a way to make the combined businesses more resilient in the event of a downturn. At the time, the commercial aerospace and defense industries were both seeing robust growth. But it’s rare for the two to move in tandem, and eventually that dynamic would end, O’Brien said.

And end it did. While no one could have predicted the coronavirus pandemic, the merger’s benefits are more apparent than ever. In comparison with a commercial aerospace sector that’s been rocked by a precipitous drop-off in air travel, the legacy Raytheon defense businesses have remained healthy as cash continues to flow from governments committed to supporting critical infrastructure investments. “We generally see the year playing out consistent with how we saw it at the beginning of the year,” O’Brien said of the defense divisions on June 2 at a UBS Group AG conference. How many other businesses can say they’re still more or less where they expected to be in January?

That’s an asset for Raytheon’s financials: The defense businesses should generate about $3.5 billion of free cash flow this year, O’Brien said, helping offset what’s expected to be a break-even performance from the legacy UTC aerospace units. But it also helps the company’s workforce. Whereas rival General Electric Co. is cutting about 25% of its aviation unit employees, Raytheon has so far managed to avoid mass layoffs, in part because it can reallocate workers to its healthier defense businesses.

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>>> Elon Musk says Starship is now SpaceX's top priority


TechCrunch

by Darrell Etherington

June 8, 2020


https://news.yahoo.com/elon-musk-says-starship-now-124102052.html





SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk says that after accomplishing its first human launch, the company's primary focus going forward will be developing Starship, its next-generation spacecraft. According to an internal email seen by CNBC, Musk said that Starship is job one for the company, with the exception of ensuring that everything goes well with the forthcoming return of the Crew Dragon capsule from the International Space Station, which will be carrying NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on their homeward bound trip.

Starship has been in development at a SpaceX production and testing site in Boca Chica, Texas, since 2019, and was also originally being developed by a second team in parallel in Florida. SpaceX combined the efforts and focused prototype builds in Texas late last year, and has been building a number of Starship prototypes using a model of rapid iteration.

The spacecraft is designed to be a fully reusable vehicle that can support both crew and cargo configurations, and that can make trips to both Earth orbit and deep space destinations including the Moon and Mars, when paired with the forthcoming SpaceX Super Heavy rocket booster. SpaceX eventually wants to replace both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy with Starship, which should reduce costs by unifying its production lines and offering full reusability.

Thus far, development of the Starship has met with a number of challenges. After early successful testing of the Raptor engine that will power it, using a subscale prototype called the 'Starhopper,' SpaceX has been building full-scale test vehicles, but each of those has so far succumbed to some failure during testing, either of its fuel compartments during pressure testing, or, most recently, shortly after a static fire test of its engine. SpaceX is now assembling SN5, the fifth prototype of Starship, to continue its testing – even while SN6 and SN7 are also under construction.

Musk says in the email seen by CNBC that SpaceX employees should "consider spending significant time" at its Boca Chica development site to help with the vehicle's development. The company now has a bit more time pressure driving Starship's development, since it was selected as one of three suppliers for NASA's human lunar lander contracts, with Starship intended to act as a last-mile transportation system for taking astronauts from NASA's Lunar Gateway to the surface of the Moon.

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Raytheon, GE - >>> GE Stock Pops Despite Some Bad News From Raytheon


Barron's

By Al Root

June 3, 2020


https://www.barrons.com/articles/ge-stock-pops-despite-some-bad-news-from-raytheon-51591197491?siteid=yhoof2


J.P. Morgan analyst Stephen Tusa thinks a recent update about aerospace from Raytheon Technologies is bad news for General Electric. But not everyone on Wall Street agrees.

Raytheon Tech (ticker: RTX)—which is the new combination of legacy Raytheon and United Technologies’ aerospace business—presented at an investor conference Tuesday.

Chief Financial Officer Tony O’Brien said any aerospace recovery would take time and that Raytheon’s free cash flow would be negative in the second quarter of 2020. Analysts were modeling positive free cash flow coming into the event. What’s more, O’Brien said aftermarket activity for portions of the aerospace business was down between 50% and 60% so far in the second quarter.

It wasn’t great news. And Raytheon stock closed down 1.1% on a day the S&P 500 rose 0.8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1%. General Electric ( GE ) shareholders, however, didn’t get the memo. GE stock rose 4.3% Tuesday. That’s a risk, according to Tusa.

Raytheon’s comments “suggests consensus expectations are not reset” at GE, Tusa argued in a Wednesday research note. General Electric has a larger engine business than Raytheon’s Pratt & Whitney division and a smaller defense engine business. For Tusa, that means things should be a little worse for GE than for Raytheon.

Barclay’s analyst Julian Mitchell, however, didn’t hear Raytheon’s comments like Tusa did. In fact, he call the news “somewhat encouraging.” The entire aerospace industry is facing the same cash flow headwinds. GE isn’t unique.

Mitchell rates GE stock the equivalent of Buy and has a $9 price target for the stock. Tusa, on the other hand, rates shares Hold and has a $5 price target.

The Raytheon news might not have been exactly what investors expected for Raytheon, but its dreadful second quarter isn’t a surprise. More than half of the commercial aircraft fleet is parked because of plummeting demand for flights, and a lot of bad news is already reflected in aerospace shares.

The entire aviation value chain has been hammered by Covid-19. Boeing (BA) and Airbus (AIR.France) are down more than 50% year to date. Aerospace supplier stocks Barron’s track are down about 35% so far in 2020. Airline shares are also down about 50% year to date on average.

Raytheon shares, for their part, are down about 28% and GE stock has fallen about 37% in 2020, as of Tuesday’s closing prices.

Besides what is already reflected in stock prices because of the commercial aerospace downturn there is another reason the Raytheon update might not have hit GE stock. It was old news.

GE CEO Larry Culp spoke at an investor conference this past week and, like Raytheon’s CFO, tamped down expectations for free cash flow because of weakness in aerospace. The stock dropped from about $7.30 to almost $6.50 in the days after his talk. But shares have since rebounded: GE stock is up 3.9%, at $7.32, in recent trading.

After Culp’s talk, many Wall Street analysts weighed in. The weaker cash flow wasn’t good news, but the weakness was consistent with what is going on in the broader industry.

Raytheon shares were bouncing back on Wednesday, with a gain of 5.4% to $66.77 in afternoon trading. The S&P 500 was up 1.3%.

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