October 24, 2020

SpaceX Could Top Lockheed, Boeing As Most Valuable Aerospace/Defense Firm (Source: Investor's Business Daily)
SpaceX's valuation could exceed the market caps of the top aerospace and defense stocks, according to Wall Street analysts, even overtaking Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Morgan Stanley now gives Elon Musk's SpaceX a base-case valuation of $101 billion. That's nearly double its prior base case of $52 billion estimated in July.

It's also more than double the $46 billion valuation implied from SpaceX's latest fundraising round in August, when it attracted $1.9 billion in new capital. The new valuation from Morgan Stanley puts SpaceX within close range of Lockheed Martin's $103 billion market cap, which makes it No. 1 among defense stocks. Meanwhile, Boeing's market cap sits at about $95.5 billion, having plunged during the 737 Max grounding and Covid-19 pandemic. Among other defense stocks, Raytheon Technologies is worth about $96 billion, Northrop Grumman $50.6 billion and General Dynamics $40 billion. (10/22)

Chinese Rocket Companies Secure Local Government Support for Research, Production Facilities (Source: Space News)
Two young Chinese rocket have secured deals with local governments for the establishment of major launch vehicle research and production facilities. The agreements made in September demonstrate ongoing and deepening support of commercial space endeavors by Chinese provincial and local governments.

Beijing-based Galactic Energy will construct a base in Jianyang, a county-level city under the administration of Chengdu, a city of 16 million in southwest China. Chengdu is the provincial capital of Sichuan province and already hosts major traditional space sector activity. The facility in Jianyang will be for research, development and production of liquid propellant rocket engines for Galactic Energy’s Pallas series launch vehicles. The base has a planned total investment of about $225 million. A signing ceremony (Chinese) took place Sept. 3.

The partially reusable Pallas-1 will be capable of launching four metric tons to low Earth orbit (LEO) or two tons to Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). A test flight is currently slated for late 2022. Galactic Energy is currently preparing to launch its first rocket with the mission expected in early November. (10/23)

Axiom Space Finalizing First Commercial ISS Mission (Source: Space News)
Axiom Space hopes to soon finalize its first commercial mission to the International Space Station, scheduled for late 2021, as it continues development of a commercial module for the station. Michael Suffredini, president and chief executive of Axiom Space, said his company had lined up the the customers for that first mission, a 10-day flight to the space station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2021.

That mission is expected to feature three customers along with one Axiom astronaut, Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut. Axiom has not disclosed who those customers are, although there has been widespread speculation that they will include the actor Tom Cruise. NASA previously confirmed it has been in discussions with Cruise about shooting a movie on the station.

Axiom Space is using missions like this as precursors to the series of commercial modules that it is building for the station, after winning a NASA competition to access a docking port there in January. Those modules will form the core of a commercial space station that will detach from the ISS when it reaches the end of its life, currently projected to be 2028 to 2030. (10/23)

Firefly Aerospace Aims for First Launch From California in Late December (Source: CNBC)
Firefly Aerospace currently plans for its maiden Alpha rocket launch to happen as early as Dec. 22, co-founder and CEO Tom Markusic told CNBC. Standing at 95 feet tall, Firefly’s Alpha rocket is designed to launch as much as 1,000 kilograms of payload to low Earth orbit – at a price of $15 million per launch. Markusic is confident in the launch date because of the “rigid” requirements of Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where Firefly is finishing up work to prepare the launchpad at SLC-2.

While “everything is susceptible to surprises,” with room in the schedule to launch as late as Jan. 31, Markusic said the “full gamut of rules” at Vandenberg means the company has put extra work into certification for Alpha’s first launch. “We took the hard route to flight, and that was by going to a launch range that has very strict requirements,” Markusic said. “So our design has been highly vetted, as we have a lot of requirements that are put on us by the range and that makes the rocket ultimately more reliable. “I think it’s very reasonable for us to expect complete success on the first launch,” Markusic added. (10/23)

What Happens When NASA Retires the International Space Station? (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Michael Suffredini knows what he knows: how to build and operate space stations. He also knows the U.S. government will never build another station for low-Earth orbit. So after two decades of working on the International Space Station, Suffredini left NASA in 2015 and co-founded Houston-based Axiom Space. He’s among those working on a succession plan for the beloved space station that, on Nov. 2, will celebrate 20 uninterrupted years of sheltering humans some 250 miles above the Earth.

NASA believes the orbiting lab will survive at least another 10 years, and there’s precedent for long-lasting space hardware. The Hubble Space Telescope recently celebrated 30 years in space. The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, launched in 1977, are still sending information to Earth. But eventually, the space station’s parts will wear down and its technology will become outdated. “The wear and tear on hardware is a real thing,” said Brendan Curry, chief of Washington operations for the Planetary Society, “and space is an environment that is constantly trying to, one way or the other, kill you or kill your hardware.” (10/23)

Travis AFB Hosts Clinical Research for NASA’s Newly Developed Medical Technology (Source: US Air Force)
NASA representatives presented new medical diagnostic technology, the E-Nose Breathalyzer, to members of David Grant USAF Medical Center Oct. 21, 2020, at Travis Air Force Base. The E-Nose Breathanalyzer, under development at NASA’s Ames Research Center, will have the capability of analyzing compounds found within a person’s breath to diagnose a battery of illnesses and abnormalities including respiratory illnesses, infectious diseases and cardiovascular conditions. As the science continues to be explored, the breath analyzer may one day be used to diagnose cancer. Travis AFB Airmen are hosting the NASA technology and collaborative research at the DGMC clinical investigation facility. (10/23)