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SpaceX to cut launch costs with reusable rocket
Privately-held SpaceX will attempt to build a re-usable rocket, founder Elon Musk announced last week. The effort marks a bold and refreshing attempt to change the technology and economics of reaching space.
Bold in comparison to the competition, at least. The Space Shuttle is now a museum piece but its successors are also mostly relics of the past. NASA's just-revealed new rocket is essentially a large, Apollo-style rocket accessorized with solid-fuel boosters from the 1970s-era Shuttle. Although it’s planned to be the most powerful rocket ever, it has been saddled the uncompelling, generic name of Space Launch System. President Obama cancelled a clean-sheet design called Ares saying it was too expensive and rehashed old ideas.
The use of old ideas reaches its apogee, however, in the Taurus II from Orbital Sciences. The first stage uses a Russian NK-33 engine built in the 1960s and '70s, intended for the Soviet lunar program but mothballed instead. Orbital Systems has a contract with NASA to use Taurus II for delivering cargos and crew to the International Space Station. So does a Lockheed-Martin/Boeing alliance—their Atlas V rocket will sit atop a (different) Russian first stage.
Clearly, Russia is doing most of the heavy lifting in the post-Shuttle era. And junkyard scavenging is now a kind of space technology strategy.
Elon Musk, having made a fortune with PayPal, founded SpaceX in 2002 with the ambition of finding a "Moore's Law of space" that would pound down the cost of escaping Earth. It has now been close to a decade and large declines in the cost of reaching orbit are not in plain sight. SpaceX has claimed dramatic efficiencies compared to government programs (read: NASA) in reducing development costs. Ironically, in an era of specialization and outsourcing, SpaceX says its cost edge comes from keeping everything in-house. Vertical integration apparently makes sense for building rockets even if it is passé as a management fashion.
Now Musk says that, despite intimidating technology hurdles, SpaceX will try to build a re-usable version of its Falcon-9 rocket. This means the expended main stage, having done its work, will kick-turn like a swimmer at pool’s end, return the way it came, and then arrest its descent with rockets, touching lightly down to Earth. Ditto for the second stage.
Rocket hardware, not fuel, is what makes space launch expensive. Reuse, the thinking goes, ought to make space launch cheaper. Of course, that same logic was what brought us the Space Shuttle.
For SpaceX, it will make the individual rockets heavier, more complicated and more expensive. Whether the technology and economics pencil out can’t be determined without trying. But there has been remarkably little fundament advance in rocket technology for half a century. Maybe that will change.
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/10/sustainable-rocketry-spacex-to-cut-launch-costs-with-reusable-rocket.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss
anyone know what's up with all of these double trades?
PCFG Short Sales
http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/PCFG/short-sales
shorties should start covering soon, imo.
Placing Bets on the Utica Shale
By Aimee Duffy | More Articles
September 27, 2011 | Comments (0)
It's official: Eastern Ohio is the place to be. Forget the Marcellus: Natural-gas producers have decided the Utica Shale is The Next Big Thing.
What we have here, Fools, is a good-ol'-fashioned land grab. Much to no one's surprise, Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK ) , the second-largest natural-gas producer in the United States, controls 1.25 million acres already. ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM ) is also on board, though it's playing the shy, silent type and refuses to disclose any information other than that it has acquired land. Finally, Hess, refusing to be left out, secured 185,000 acres earlier this month.
Here is a snapshot of some other companies seeking to lay claim to a portion of the 108 million acres (170,000 square miles) that make up the Utica Shale.
Company
P/E (TTM)
EPS
Debt/Equity
Dividend Yield
Chesapeake Energy 18.33 1.50 65.25 1.30%
ExxonMobil 9.45 7.59 10.19 2.70%
Hess 6.59 8.21 29.31 0.80%
Devon Energy
(NYSE: DVN ) 4.22 13.60 37.01 1.20%
Anadarko Petroleum 41.45 1.68 59.18 0.50%
EV Energy Partners
(Nasdaq: EVEP ) 59.8 1.17 54.62 4.30%
Rex Energy
(Nasdaq: REXX ) N/A (0.02) 23.16 N/A
Gulfport Energy
(Nasdaq: GPOR ) 14.32 1.65 9.32 N/A
Magnum Hunter Resources
(NYSE: MHR ) N/A (0.42) 23.07 N/A
Source: Yahoo! Finance.
Chesapeake definitely has every advantage going into this Battle Royale. The company plans to profit from drilling 12,500 wells on part of its land and shopping the rest of it to the other drillers.
Analysts are encouraging investors to consider the smaller outfits like Rex Energy, Gulfport Energy, and Magnum Hunter Resources for two reasons. First, although it's important for ExxonMobil to establish itself in the play, success here isn't likely to set its stock price on fire, as it would a smaller company. Second, success for a small outfit in the Utica can make it much more desirable for potential buyers in an industry that's hot for mergers and acquisitions right now. Gulfport Energy plans to begin drilling its 30,000 acres next year.
Things to keep an eye on
There are two potential glitches to success in the Utica Shale: resource uncertainty and the environmental issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Only 16 wells have been drilled in the Utica so far. Most companies claim that the area is geologically similar to other successful shale plays, but it's really too early to say for sure, especially given the region's size. Take Chesapeake, for example: It has the largest holding and has done extensive testing, but only on nine wells.
The other problem for the Utica is the fierce battle over fracking. Though initial drilling is off the less infamous vertical variety, horizontal fracking will commence once wells have been drilled deep enough to penetrate the shale.
Regardless of your stance on this particular method of drilling, to say the controversy has caused some problems for energy companies is an understatement. It's become so contentious that some New York landowners are trying to get out of their leases with drillers and in Pennsylvania, and two residents personally paid for anti-drilling billboards. And this wouldn't be America without costly lawsuits, so there are a few of those to go around as well.
Foolish bottom line
Companies looking to make the most out of the Utica play will have to do a better job communicating with the public to avoid the sort of problems that follow hydraulic fracturing wherever it goes. If they can do that and the play yields as much gas as E&P outfits think it will, investors will have a bevy of drillers to choose from.
SpaceX's Grasshopper to Fly in the Skies of Texas
http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/09/26/0325201/SpaceXs-Grasshopper-to-Fly-in-the-Skies-of-Texas?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29
DelShareholder: So the value transferred to JPM under the GSA is equal to 6.5 to 7Billion
DelShareholder: Which is the same amount that WMI will have to distribute to creditors
anyone else using etrade having trouble logging in this morning?
anyone else using etrade having trouble logging in this morning?
Intel Haswell chip to run notebooks 24 hours on one charge
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/09/13/intel.haswell.to.make.huge.strides.in.battery.life/
200900 just shares went through @ .07 on the L2.
this is awesome news!
(hows the weather in hawaii?
i'm going to kauai in december!
first time ever out to the islands!)
PCFG!!!
oh sh!t son!
wait, you mean people lie on the internet?? whaaaaaaat?
i live in the north burbs of chicago.
i never said this stock was being pumped, or that it is a PnD at all.
i don't think i ever came across any websites actually pumping PCFG, although i have received an email alert from time to time from "money runners", but i feel that is more just of an ihub momo movement.
i'll keep my eyes open and do a little digging if i find time today.
why do you think this stock has been halted?
not sure what to think about this:
Aug 29 PCFG 18 MRT TSW
http://www.pumpsanddumps.com/p/directory-of-touts.html
a buddy of mine sent this to me this morning.
feedback?
SpaceX is hiring up a storm!
Need a new job?
http://www.spacex.com/careers.php
Nah, not in the full scheme of things. A month is nothing.
After Correction, Gold and Silver Set for Big Rally – Puru Saxena
http://www.kitco.com/reports/KitcoNews20110824DC_interview.html
FOCUS: Gold’s Break Deemed ‘Healthy’ For Market Direction
http://www.kitco.com/reports/KitcoNews20110824DeC_focus.html
small break and then EC is up next!
The B&B claims more than double NRG's existing land area in Crescent Valley at the Black Rock Canyon Mine.
gotta love that.
some nice news for us today too!
oh is this where we go up now? lol
that's about $613k they'll be pulling out of the ground a month, based on where gold is at right now.
http://www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.html
can we say manufactured drop? it's so obvious it hurts.
"These blocks are estimated to collectively contain 120,000 cubic yards of gravel and the Company expects the grade of the next 3 blocks to be approximately 0.4 grams of gold per cubic yard ("g/yd3")."
i also like this part:
OTCBB - The Company will not be quoted on the OTCBB in the near future. The Company is currently happy with the OTC Markets QB tier and will investigate the new options recently announced by NASDAQ and FINRA for smaller companies as they become available. It is important to note that the Company does not have control over where its shares are quoted on the various OTC options. This is mostly a determination by Market Making member firms of FINRA and where they decide to quote the Company's shares. Some news services and websites are still adjusting their news and quote feeds to account for the different tiers on the OTC markets and so the Company stock ticker may show up on some still as 'pinksheets' and others as 'OTCQB'.
http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=nmona&article=48839347&symbol=PCFG
i have a feeling they would file here first before they released a PR:
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=Pacific+Gold+Corp&match=&CIK=&filenum=&State=&Country=&SIC=&owner=exclude&Find=Find+Companies&action=getcompany
just got an email with this:
This message is has been sent by the moderator of the iHub "<font color=green>Money Runners</font>" message board.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=15619
08 Break out time....
The Money Runners
hahaha. nice to see nerdfolk here.
GO PCFG!
you DO know that the price of gold does NOT directly reflect the share price of PCFG...right?
911 just went though at the ask.
news on it's way?
this is gonna be one helluva power hour. and tomorrow too.
got a nice curve up on the 100D MACD, should cross or come close tomorrow in preparation for monday.
looks like we may be closing that gap now.
you got your wish.
great, thanks for bringing the daytraders back...
can i find that in the itunes store?
i'm planning on holding for a long time.
dont we all know what we hold by now?
no no, just using up all the dry powder i had left.
i'm averaged at a little over 3 cents.