Video Caption: Investors owning surging speculative stocks should take some off the table and protect profits, “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer says.
Virgin Galactic shares swung back-and-forth in heavy trading Thursday, with the stock giving dropping midday after climbing earlier.
(more…)
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin released a fact sheet about its programs when it opened its new Huntsville manufacturing facility on Monday. Below is an excerpt on the company’s advanced development programs and Blue Moon lunar lander.
BLUE ORIGIN FACT SHEET
Advanced Development Programs
Blue Origin is developing advanced technologies to enable space exploration and development, including a NASA Tipping Point contract to mature cryogenic liquid propulsion for integrated large-scale lunar lander applications and several years of progress on the Blue Moon Lunar Lander and its BE-7 lunar landing engine.
(more…)
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected 18 small research satellites from 11 states to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets launching in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The selected CubeSats were proposed by educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and NASA centers in response to NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) call for proposals issued in August 2019.
(more…)
LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (USAF PR) — On Feb. 11, after more than 22 years of providing vital global weather data to the U.S. and its allies, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Flight 14 was decommissioned after completing 118, 052 orbits of the Earth.
End of Life (EOL) procedures were accomplished by operators at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF) in Suitland, Maryland, under the direction of United States Space Force’s 50th Space Wing. Space and Missiles Systems Center technical experts worked in concert with the rest of the team to ensure the EOL procedures were effectively and efficiently executed.
(more…)
Harbor commissioners for the Port of Los Angeles have approved a lease with SpaceX under which Elon Musk’s company will build a research, development, manufacturing and recovery facility at a dilapidated terminal.
The lease agreement, which the harbor board approved on Thursday, now goes to the Los Angeles City Council for a vote.
SpaceX would pay $1,699,990 during the first year, with the cost adjusted annually according to the consumer price index (CPI). Assuming SpaceX renews the lease for years 11-30, total lease payments through year 20 would total $52,888,933.
(more…)
Video Caption: CNBC’s space reporter Michael Sheetz and FinTech reporter Kate Rooney break down why Virgin Galactic’s stock has taken off with the “Power Lunch” team.
Virgin Galactic’s rally began two months ago but trading in the speculative space company has recently accelerated in a way that tops even the momentum behind Tesla.
(more…)
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin released a fact sheet about its programs when it opened its new Huntsville manufacturing facility on Monday. Below is an excerpt on the company’s New Glenn rocket and its BE-3, BE-4 and BE-7 engine development program.
BLUE ORIGIN FACT SHEET
New Glenn
Named after John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit Earth, New Glenn is a single configuration, heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle capable of carrying people and payloads routinely to low Earth orbit, geostationary transfer orbit, cislunar and beyond. Its first stage is fully reusable and built for 25 missions initially.
(more…)
The DARPA Launch Challenge is nearing its end with modified rules and only one of three finalists left standing to win $12 million in prize money.
Astra Space will attempt to conduct two launches within days of each other from the Pacific Spaceport Complex — Alaska on Kodiak Island. The launches will take place from different pads at the spaceport and place satellites into different sun-synchronous trajectories.
(more…)
HOUSTON (NASA PR) — A variety of science investigations, along with supplies and equipment, launch to the International Space Station on the 20th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission. The Dragon cargo spacecraft is scheduled to leave Earth March 2 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Its cargo includes research on particle foam manufacturing, water droplet formation, the human intestine and other cutting-edge investigations.
(more…)
TAMPA, Fla. (Department of Justice PR) – Charles R. Resnick (69, Charlotte, NC, formerly from Florida) has pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false income tax return. He faces a maximum penalty of three years in federal prison. Resnick also agreed to make restitution to the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (“CASIS”). A sentencing date has not yet been set.
According to the plea agreement, on October 15, 2013, Resnick filed a 2012 Individual Income Tax Return (IRS Form 1040), which he signed under penalty of perjury. On the return, Resnick attested that his total income for tax year 2012 was $225,947, when he knew that his income was substantially greater.
Resnick understated his total income by approximately $209,916 and failed to report approximately $158,000 in gross receipts that he had earned from consulting clients.
In addition, he improperly deducted business expenses in the approximate amount of $51,500, despite the facts that (1) he had been reimbursed for the expenses and (2) some of the deducted expenses were not ordinary and necessary business expenses.
For sentencing purposes, Resnick is responsible for the total tax loss for tax years 2010 through and including 2013. That amount will be determined at sentencing.
This case was investigated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Office of Inspector General and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rachelle DesVaux Bedke.
The Asahi Shimbun reports on a proposal for a sample return mission to Mars’ moon Phobos.
JAXA officials submitted a plan to the science ministry on Feb. 19 that calls for the probe to attempt a landing on Phobos to collect rocks and sand.
The probe will use similar technology installed on the Hayabusa 2 probe, which allowed JAXA to collect and retrieve samples from the asteroid Ryugu in 2019.
Hayabusa 2 is scheduled to release a capsule containing those samples above Australia at the end of this year.
A new H-3 rocket will be used to launch the exploration plan dubbed MMX in September 2024.
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (U.S. Space Force PR) — Gen. Jay Raymond, Chief of Space Operations, U.S. Space Force, and Commander, U.S. Space Command, recently signed the USSF Vision for Enterprise Satellite Communications (SATCOM).
The Enterprise SATCOM Vision outlines the new Service’s vision to evolve SATCOM into a single enterprise that can continue to deliver effects to warfighters from and through a contested, degraded and operationally-limited (CDO) environment.
(more…)
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — Today the Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP) CubeSat made history by becoming the 100th CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) selected mission deployed into space. This mission marks nearly 12 years of the CSLI providing CubeSat developers rideshare opportunities to space via Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) missions.
(more…)
PARIS (ESA PR) — ESA is calling on ambitious start-ups to join the new ESA Start-up Competition. This opportunity is open to entrepreneurs in all ESA Member States that are developing innovative services and/or products using space technology. The winners will be offered tailor-made ESA technical and business support in the development of their start-ups, within a mentoring programme.
In addition to the mentoring program, the competition winners will also be invited to attend this year 71st International Astronautical Congress (IAC), which will take place in Dubai from the 12–16 October 2020. There, they will get the chance to present their start-ups at ESA’s booth and in other sessions promoted or sponsored by ESA. During IAC, ESA is also organising a Global Networking Forum session dedicated to the important role that start-ups play within the space industry ecosystem.
(more…)
MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — The Russian members of the main crew of the Soyuz MS-16 manned spacecraft, Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Tikhonov and Andrei Babkin, will be replaced by backups for medical reasons.
The positions of the commander and flight engineer of the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft will now be taken by the cosmonauts of Roscosmos Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Wagner. The changes will affect only the Russian part of the crew, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy continues to prepare for the flight in accordance with the established plan.
The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with the Soyuz MS-16 manned spacecraft and members of the long-term expedition ISS-63 is scheduled for April 9 this year from launch pad No. 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
