Parabolic Arc Context Backgrounder

• $425 million in senior notes due in 2027; initial purchasers have option to buy up to $75 million in notes
• First issuing of debt; company previously raised money by issuing hundreds of millions in additional stock after going public on Oct. 28, 2019
• Announcement came as sister company, Virgin Orbit, prepared for a satellite launch later today
• Stock price well below its NYSE debut price of $12.79 and peak of $62.80
• Company has lost hundreds of millions of dollars since going public as schedule delays lengthened
• Space tourism revenue flights not expected until third quarter 2022
• Plan before going public was to begin tourism flights in June 2020
• Founder Richard Branson has extracted about $1.4 billion from initial deal to go public and subsequent sales of stock
• Branson has reduced ownership stake from more than 50 percent in October 2019 to 11.9 percent today

Virgin Galactic’s press release announcing the plan to issue debt follows.

PARIS (ESA PR) — ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops has revealed that an exoplanet orbiting its host star within a day has a deformed shape more like that of a rugby ball than a sphere. This is the first time that the deformation of an exoplanet has been detected, offering new insights into the internal structure of these star-hugging planets.

The planet, known as WASP-103b is located in the constellation of Hercules. It has been deformed by the strong tidal forces between the planet and its host star WASP-103, which is about 200 degrees hotter and 1.7 times larger than the Sun.

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — Earth’s global average surface temperature in 2021 tied with 2018 as the sixth warmest on record, according to independent analyses done by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Continuing the planet’s long-term warming trend, global temperatures in 2021 were 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.85 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA’s baseline period, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. NASA uses the period from 1951-1980 as a baseline to see how global temperature changes over time.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (NASA PR) — As teams continue to prepare NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for its debut flight with the launch of Artemis I, NASA and its partners across the country have made great progress building the rocket for Artemis II, the first crewed Artemis mission. The team is also manufacturing and testing major parts for Artemis missions III, IV and V.

LACONIA, NH, January 12, 2022 (Rogue Space Systems PR) — Rogue Space Systems Corporation today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC), the world’s first large-scale space construction company, to lease Orbital Robot (Orbots™) for its gravity-enabled platforms.

Along with the MOU, Rogue has also received OAC’s initial payment for the services covered under the agreement, a major milestone for the industry. Rogue is the first US-based space startup to secure a paying commercial customer for this type of orbital services. This also accelerates OAC’s efforts to deliver critical service resources for upcoming missions. This mission will demonstrate the construction of gravity-enabled structures Success will clearly demonstrate Orbital Assembly’s construction capabilities facilitated with Rogue Orbots.

Translated from Russian by Google Translate

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — What space startups were buzzing around in 2021? What ups and downs has the private astronautics market experienced? The most interesting and important things were collected by the editor of ” Russian Space ” Igor Afanasyev.

HOUSTON (Intuitive Machines PR) — Together, Intuitive Machines (IM) and Morehead State University’s Space Science Center (MSU) validated a complete lunar communications solution with the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), including orbit determination pointing solution and data downlink.

CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE BASE, Fla. (SpaceX PR) — SpaceX is targeting Thursday, January 13 for a Falcon 9 launch of Transporter-3 to orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The 29-minute launch window opens at 10:25 a.m. EST, or 15:25 UTC, and a backup opportunity is available on Friday, January 14 with the same window. Falcon 9’s first stage booster previously launched Crew […]

James Webb Space TelescopeNASA Mission UpdateJan. 12, 2022 Webb has begun the detailed process of fine-tuning its individual optics into one huge, precise telescope. Engineers first commanded actuators – 126 devices that will move and shape the primary mirror segments, and six devices that will position the secondary mirror – to verify that all are working as expected after launch. The team also commanded actuators that guide Webb’s fine steering […]

Virgin Orbit has postponed a satellite launch scheduled for Wednesday by 24 hours so engineers could take “a little extra time to thoroughly validate the system and to check our sensor readings. “We are now targeting Thursday, Jan 13 as our first available launch opportunity, with potential takeoff between ~1pm & 3:30pm Pacific. We have additional windows available in the coming days, if needed,” the company tweeted. “The launch system, […]

A Singaporean space tech start-up will launch NuX-1 tech demo satellite in January 2022 to bring IoT connectivity to remote places

Singapore/Berlin, Germany, January 12, 2022 (NuSpace/Exolaunch PR) – NuSpace Pte. Ltd., a leading Singaporean space tech startup with a focus on IoT connectivity and data platform services and Exolaunch, a global provider of small satellite launch, in-space logistics, and deployment services announced a launch agreement for NuX-1 aboard the SpaceX Transporter-3 mission. NuSpace’s NuX-1 IoT satellite has just been integrated with the launch vehicle by Exolaunch and will be launched to a sun-synchronous orbit above 500 km aboard Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral not earlier than January 2022 as part of SpaceX’s SmallSat Rideshare Program.

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), an advisory committee that reports to NASA and Congress, issued its 2021 annual report Tuesday examining the agency’s safety performance over the past year and highlighting accomplishments, issues, and concerns. 

The report highlights 2021 activities and includes observations on NASA’s:

• Strategic Vision and Guiding Principles
• Agency Governance
• Program Management

Throughout 2021, the panel explored the status of NASA’s ongoing program of work and focused on the longer term, strategic posture of the agency to address risk management. As a result, this annual report continues the panel’s focus on strategic issues and their bearing on current development, exploration, and operational matters.