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Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Mark Rocket: Who is Mark Rocket? The Christchurch entrepreneur who just became the first New Zealander in space
ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT With a name like Rocket, it was only a matter of time. On Sunday, Christchurch aerospace entrepreneur Mark Rocket lived up to his name, becoming the first New Zealander to fly to 55-year-old soared aboard Virgin Galactic 's Galactic 07 mission, a suborbital flight launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico. As the spacecraft arced above Earth, reaching an altitude of about 88 kilometres, Rocket joined a rare group of civilians who have witnessed the planet from the edge of space and returned safely.'I've been dreaming of this for a long time,' Rocket said after the flight. 'It was surreal. The Earth looked incredible from up there.'Born Mark Stevens, he legally changed his name to Mark Rocket in 2003 to reflect his passion for space. He was an early investor and the first customer of Rocket Lab, New Zealand's prominent space launch company, although he is no longer co-founded Kea Aerospace , a Christchurch-based company developing solar-powered aircraft to collect high-altitude data. He is also the current president of the Aerospace New Zealand industry group, which supports the country's growing space sector.'This flight isn't just about me,' Rocket said. 'It's about inspiring others in Aotearoa to dream bigger, reach higher, and see space as part of our future.'The Virgin Galactic flight lasted around 90 minutes from takeoff to landing. Rocket was joined on board by passengers from the US, Ukraine, and Austria, as well as two Virgin Galactic crew spacecraft, VSS Unity , was carried into the sky by a mothership before being released to fire its rocket engine and soar into space. It was Unity's final flight, and it is now being retired after completing seven commercial said he had been training for the experience since 2022 and felt honored to represent New Zealand. 'The view, the weightlessness — it was all incredible,' he said. 'I feel extremely grateful.'Prime Minister Christopher Luxon congratulated Rocket, calling the flight 'a proud moment for New Zealand's science and technology sector.''It's only the beginning,' Rocket said. 'There's so much more we can achieve.'
Time of India
3 days ago
- Science
- Time of India
Who is Mark Rocket? The Christchurch entrepreneur who just became the first New Zealander in space
With a name like Rocket, it was only a matter of time. On Sunday, Christchurch aerospace entrepreneur Mark Rocket lived up to his name, becoming the first New Zealander to fly to space. The 55-year-old soared aboard Virgin Galactic 's Galactic 07 mission, a suborbital flight launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico. As the spacecraft arced above Earth, reaching an altitude of about 88 kilometres, Rocket joined a rare group of civilians who have witnessed the planet from the edge of space and returned safely. 'I've been dreaming of this for a long time,' Rocket said after the flight. 'It was surreal. The Earth looked incredible from up there.' Born Mark Stevens, he legally changed his name to Mark Rocket in 2003 to reflect his passion for space. He was an early investor and the first customer of Rocket Lab, New Zealand's prominent space launch company, although he is no longer involved. Rocket co-founded Kea Aerospace , a Christchurch-based company developing solar-powered aircraft to collect high-altitude data. He is also the current president of the Aerospace New Zealand industry group, which supports the country's growing space sector. Live Events 'This flight isn't just about me,' Rocket said. 'It's about inspiring others in Aotearoa to dream bigger, reach higher, and see space as part of our future.' The Virgin Galactic flight lasted around 90 minutes from takeoff to landing. Rocket was joined on board by passengers from the US, Ukraine, and Austria, as well as two Virgin Galactic crew members. The spacecraft, VSS Unity , was carried into the sky by a mothership before being released to fire its rocket engine and soar into space. It was Unity's final flight, and it is now being retired after completing seven commercial missions. Rocket said he had been training for the experience since 2022 and felt honored to represent New Zealand. 'The view, the weightlessness — it was all incredible,' he said. 'I feel extremely grateful.' Prime Minister Christopher Luxon congratulated Rocket, calling the flight 'a proud moment for New Zealand's science and technology sector.' 'It's only the beginning,' Rocket said. 'There's so much more we can achieve.'
NZ Herald
25-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Aerospace entrepeneur Mark Rocket to become first Kiwi in space on Blue Origin flight
He's also the current president of Aerospace New Zealand and a seed investor of Rocket Lab, co-directing the company from 2007 to 2011. Rocket said he hopes heading skywards will inspire more New Zealanders to get involved in its fledgling aerospace sector. 'This flight is a significant personal milestone and a signal that New Zealand is an active player in the global aerospace industry,' he wrote in a media release. 'We have the talent, ambition, and ingenuity to make major contributions. 'Space is no longer the domain of superpowers and science fiction. It's an exciting frontier for innovation, climate solutions, economic opportunity, and global collaboration.' Twenty-five years ago, Rocket pledged he'd become the first New Zealander to reach space, legally changing his surname in 2000 as a reflection of his commitment to the field. Initially buying a ticket to board a Virgin Galactic rocket in 2006, Rocket changed to the Blue Origin programme after Virgin Galactic began experiencing delays and issues in launching its commercial spaceflights. The five individuals joining Rocket are a group of entrepreneurs, founders and space lovers: Panama's Jaime Alemán, Canada's Jesse Williams and Gretchen Green, Paul Jeris and Aymette Medina Jorge from the United States. New Shepard's most recent mission in April, N-31, sent the first all-female flight crew to space, while Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos went up in the company's first crewed flight in July 2021. The fully automated New Shepard rocket system carries passengers to an altitude of 100km - past the boundary of space - in a capsule, which then descends to Earth using parachutes. The entire flight takes around 11 minutes to complete. Speaking to 1News about Blue Origin's announcement, Rocket said space travel is on his mind 'all the time'. 'Ever since I was a kid. I've always been fascinated by space technology and space travel. I remember at primary school I did a project about the planets.' He wasn't too bothered by the quick flight time, saying 'buckling in' and 'getting ready to experience the 3Gs or rocket-powered flight up to space will be pretty phenomenal'.
News.com.au
23-05-2025
- News.com.au
The truth about the future of space tourism
What does the future really hold for space tourism? Once a sci-fi fantasy, space travel for civilians is fast becoming reality—at least for the ultra-wealthy.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Virgin Galactic a Millionaire-Maker Stock?
Virgin Galactic is beginning to attract the market's attention after its first-quarter earnings. Can this space tourism business generate sustainable returns? 10 stocks we like better than Virgin Galactic › With shares down 98% over the last five years, Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) is a perfect example of the risks involved in stock market investing. While speculative, unprofitable companies can be attractive because of their volatility and millionaire-maker potential, they also face a high risk of failure because reality eventually catches up to the hype. That said, investors seem to be returning to Virgin Galactic stock after better-than-expected earnings and some analyst upgrades. Shares rose by an impressive 80% on May 16. But is this move a dead cat bounce or the start of a sustainable bull run for the company? Let's dig deeper. Virgin Galactic is helping pioneer a brand new industry called space tourism. Currently, this involves sending wealthy individuals on brief, recreational flights to suborbital space -- roughly 51.4 miles above sea level in Virgin Galactic's case (although rival services may go higher). While these trips fall short of "outer space" (62 miles above sea level), it is enough to offer passengers a brief period of weightlessness and the ability to view planet Earth from a remarkably high vantage point. Unsurprisingly, tickets are expensive, at around $600,000 per seat. Still, the company is betting that enough wealthy people will be willing to open their wallets for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They might be right. For context, top-of-the-line hotel rooms, such as the Royal Mansion in Dubai Atlantis, cost a jaw-dropping $100,000 per night. And climbing Mount Everest can cost from $33,000 to $200,000, depending on the package, according to Expedreview. Virgin Galactic believes it can attract these same high rollers and estimates space tourism has a total addressable market of 300,000, which is expected to grow 8% annually. Any investor who has spent enough time analyzing speculative stocks knows that talk is cheap. Companies often make exciting projections that might not actually materialize, so it usually makes more sense to focus on their current performance and growth rates. Virgin Galactic's first-quarter results leave much to be desired. Revenue fell 77% year over year to $461,000, although a reduction in expenses (mainly research and development) helped the company narrow its operating loss from $113.1 million to $88.9 million. This cash burn is still alarming. With just $140.8 million in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet, Virgin Galactic won't be able to sustain its losses without turning to outside sources of capital, such as equity dilution. Equity dilution essentially means creating and selling more units of its stock while its market cap remains the same. The result is that each share represents a smaller claim on the business and its future earnings. Virgin Galactic is still in a pre-commercial stage. Its primary focus is building and designing its aircraft while getting the necessary regulatory approvals to start flying paying customers in 2026. In this context, shareholders may benefit more from the company diluting its shares to raise cash because it increases the chances that it will make it to commercialization and avoid worse outcomes, such as bankruptcy. Now it's time to answer the big question: Is Virgin Galactic a potential millionaire-maker stock? The short answer is yes (with some significant caveats). If the company can successfully establish commercial operations, its business could generate substantial shareholder returns over the long term. However, this isn't guaranteed. While Virgin Galactic's management claims they will be able to start commercial operations in 2026, the company has a long track record of overpromising and underdelivering. In fact, the first passenger-carrying flights were supposed to begin in 2011 -- a whopping 14 years ago. Virgin Galactic keeps kicking the can down the road, so investors should take everything it promises with a grain (or perhaps a handful) of salt. We don't know when Virgin Galactic's commercial operations will begin. That means the company is likely to continue burning through hundreds of millions in capital each year and diluting shareholders. The risks outweigh the potential rewards right now. Before you buy stock in Virgin Galactic, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Virgin Galactic wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $642,582!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $829,879!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 975% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Will Ebiefung has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is Virgin Galactic a Millionaire-Maker Stock? was originally published by The Motley Fool
