Latest news with #spaceLaunch
Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
At the Worst Possible Moment for Boeing, Airbus' Space Business Is Booming
"The ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year." That was the headline from a House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces hearing on United Launch Alliance's (ULA) performance in space launch last week. As Ars Technica reports, Major General Stephen G. Purdy, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, took ULA, a joint venture between Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), to task for causing "delays to the launch of four national security missions." The space company has launched its new Vulcan rocket twice and finally won certification to fly national security missions in March after the Space Force generously overlooked the fact that, during the rocket's October 2024 certification flight, one of its engine nozzles fell off. Yet despite Space Force doing this favor, ULA has failed to get Vulcan ready to launch even once since receiving certification two months ago. Granted, I personally expect ULA to get its problems fixed and resume Vulcan flights shortly. (With Atlas V due for imminent retirement, it kind of has to!) But ULA had better get a move on. Because over on the other side of the ocean, one of ULA's biggest competitors, aerospace and space giant Airbus (OTC: EADSY), is already starting to up its game in space. Airbus' space business is flying high Airbus' struggles in space are well-known. The company's new Ariane 6 rocket took nearly a decade to develop. By the time it was ready for flight, it ended up costing far more than planned for each launch. Growing pains are far from unknown in the space business, however, and it looks like the European aerospace company is finally finding its footing in space. Revenue at the company's space division, part of Airbus Defense and Space (ADS), fell 18% from 2021 to 2023 before bouncing back 10% in 2024. As 2025 gets underway, it seems to be gaining momentum. According to a new report from Payload Space, space revenue at ADS grew 28% in the first quarter of 2025. Assuming this is correct, it would mean Airbus' space business is growing more than twice as fast as ADS generally, where revenue grew only 11% in Q1. Profitability is likely to improve as well after the company took $2 billion in charges over the past two years and laid off 2,500 workers to reduce its operating costs. Contract wins are rolling in: $157 million to build two synthetic aperture radar defense satellites for Britain; $2.5 billion more to build a pair of large communications satellites for the German military; and a big contract with Eutelsat to build 100 satellites for that company's OneWeb broadband internet satellite constellation. On top of all this, Airbus CEO Guillaume M.J.D Faury made a cryptic comment in the company's post-earnings conference call last month: "We continue ... looking at different scenarios to create scale in the European space business." Payload and others believe this could be a reference to an Airbus plan to merge its satellite business with those of fellow European defense companies Thales and Leonardo to create a European "champion" that could compete with SpaceX and Starlink. What all this means for Boeing and Lockheed Martin Just because Airbus is gunning primarily for SpaceX, though, doesn't mean ULA should feel safe. In rockets, Airbus CEO Faury said it's his "priority" now to "ramp up" Ariane 6 launches at the same time as ULA's own Vulcan rocket program seems stalled. In at least one regard, this would appear to put Airbus in a head-to-head competition with ULA. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), after all, has awarded contracts to both companies to assist it in launching its Project Kuiper internet satellites into orbit. Time is of the essence in that effort, with a July 30, 2026, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) deadline looming. Whichever space company ramps its rocket launch cadence first may capture a larger share of the Amazon work. Even bigger picture, ULA CEO Tory Bruno has made it a primary objective to diversify ULA's revenue base by having Vulcan split its launches roughly 50-50 between U.S. government and commercial missions. Historically, ULA has been almost exclusively a U.S. government launcher, but this diversification initiative puts ULA in direct competition with Airbus -- at the same time as ULA is already competing with SpaceX, the 800-lb. gorilla in commercial space launches. All things considered, it's a bad time for ULA to be making its current biggest customer, Space Force, mad at it. Investors looking to avoid further Boeing drama might want to take a look at Airbus stock instead. At 29 times trailing earnings, I won't argue Airbus stock is "cheap," necessarily. But with analysts forecasting 24% long-term annual earnings growth and space revenues already growing faster than that, Airbus stock just might be cheap enough to buy as an alternative to Boeing stock. Should you invest $1,000 in Airbus SE right now? Before you buy stock in Airbus SE, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Airbus SE 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 $638,985!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $853,108!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is978% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to171%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool recommends Lockheed Martin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
At the Worst Possible Moment for Boeing, Airbus' Space Business Is Booming
Air Force brass criticized United Launch Alliance's launch cadence in recent Congressional testimony. Airbus is cutting costs and growing revenue rapidly at its space business. United Launch Alliance is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and competes with Airbus and SpaceX. 10 stocks we like better than Airbus SE › "The ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year." That was the headline from a House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces hearing on United Launch Alliance's (ULA) performance in space launch last week. As Ars Technica reports, Major General Stephen G. Purdy, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, took ULA, a joint venture between Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), to task for causing "delays to the launch of four national security missions." The space company has launched its new Vulcan rocket twice and finally won certification to fly national security missions in March after the Space Force generously overlooked the fact that, during the rocket's October 2024 certification flight, one of its engine nozzles fell off. Yet despite Space Force doing this favor, ULA has failed to get Vulcan ready to launch even once since receiving certification two months ago. Granted, I personally expect ULA to get its problems fixed and resume Vulcan flights shortly. (With Atlas V due for imminent retirement, it kind of has to!) But ULA had better get a move on. Because over on the other side of the ocean, one of ULA's biggest competitors, aerospace and space giant Airbus (OTC: EADSY), is already starting to up its game in space. Airbus' struggles in space are well-known. The company's new Ariane 6 rocket took nearly a decade to develop. By the time it was ready for flight, it ended up costing far more than planned for each launch. Growing pains are far from unknown in the space business, however, and it looks like the European aerospace company is finally finding its footing in space. Revenue at the company's space division, part of Airbus Defense and Space (ADS), fell 18% from 2021 to 2023 before bouncing back 10% in 2024. As 2025 gets underway, it seems to be gaining momentum. According to a new report from Payload Space, space revenue at ADS grew 28% in the first quarter of 2025. Assuming this is correct, it would mean Airbus' space business is growing more than twice as fast as ADS generally, where revenue grew only 11% in Q1. Profitability is likely to improve as well after the company took $2 billion in charges over the past two years and laid off 2,500 workers to reduce its operating costs. Contract wins are rolling in: $157 million to build two synthetic aperture radar defense satellites for Britain; $2.5 billion more to build a pair of large communications satellites for the German military; and a big contract with Eutelsat to build 100 satellites for that company's OneWeb broadband internet satellite constellation. On top of all this, Airbus CEO Guillaume M.J.D Faury made a cryptic comment in the company's post-earnings conference call last month: "We continue ... looking at different scenarios to create scale in the European space business." Payload and others believe this could be a reference to an Airbus plan to merge its satellite business with those of fellow European defense companies Thales and Leonardo to create a European "champion" that could compete with SpaceX and Starlink. Just because Airbus is gunning primarily for SpaceX, though, doesn't mean ULA should feel safe. In rockets, Airbus CEO Faury said it's his "priority" now to "ramp up" Ariane 6 launches at the same time as ULA's own Vulcan rocket program seems stalled. In at least one regard, this would appear to put Airbus in a head-to-head competition with ULA. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), after all, has awarded contracts to both companies to assist it in launching its Project Kuiper internet satellites into orbit. Time is of the essence in that effort, with a July 30, 2026, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) deadline looming. Whichever space company ramps its rocket launch cadence first may capture a larger share of the Amazon work. Even bigger picture, ULA CEO Tory Bruno has made it a primary objective to diversify ULA's revenue base by having Vulcan split its launches roughly 50-50 between U.S. government and commercial missions. Historically, ULA has been almost exclusively a U.S. government launcher, but this diversification initiative puts ULA in direct competition with Airbus -- at the same time as ULA is already competing with SpaceX, the 800-lb. gorilla in commercial space launches. All things considered, it's a bad time for ULA to be making its current biggest customer, Space Force, mad at it. Investors looking to avoid further Boeing drama might want to take a look at Airbus stock instead. At 29 times trailing earnings, I won't argue Airbus stock is "cheap," necessarily. But with analysts forecasting 24% long-term annual earnings growth and space revenues already growing faster than that, Airbus stock just might be cheap enough to buy as an alternative to Boeing stock. Before you buy stock in Airbus SE, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Airbus SE 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 $638,985!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $853,108!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 978% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% 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 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool recommends Lockheed Martin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. At the Worst Possible Moment for Boeing, Airbus' Space Business Is Booming was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Free Malaysia Today
08-05-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Could there soon be data centres in space?
The Terran R launcher could one day be used to put data centres into orbit. (Relativity Space pic) PARIS : Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently took the helm of Relativity Space, a startup specialising in space launchers. His ambition is to one day place data centres directly into orbit, powered by solar energy, with the aim of alleviating their environmental footprint on Earth. A few weeks ago, Eric Schmidt warned of a possible future energy crisis at a hearing before the US Congress. According to him, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) means that the share of data centre activity in global electricity consumption could rise from the current 3% to 99% in the future. In particular, he mentioned plans for data centres with a capacity of 10 gigawatts, almost 10 times the equivalent of a nuclear reactor. Indeed, a simple query on ChatGPT requires 10 times more resources than a search on a conventional search engine. Faced with these challenges, Eric Schmidt put forward the idea of placing dedicated infrastructure in orbit, powered by solar energy and cooled by the vacuum of space. This unique approach would reduce the environmental footprint of terrestrial data centres. Relativity Space made a name for itself by launching its very first 3D-printed rocket, the Terran 1, in 2023. The company is currently developing a more elaborate model, dubbed Terran R, scheduled for launch in late 2026. The idea is to make Terran R a reusable launcher for carrying medium and heavy loads, up to around 30 tonnes. Terran R is thus positioned as a direct competitor to SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy (led by Elon Musk) and Blue Origin's New Glenn (led by Jeff Bezos). It could therefore one day help launch future data centres into orbit. Although this somewhat outlandish project presents Relativity Space with a number of technical challenges, the initiative is positioned as an innovative solution to the future AI-induced energy crisis. Eric Schmidt's arrival at the startup is likely to attract attention and investors, in what is now an ultra-competitive sector that requires a great deal of funding. A report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), published in April, stated that by 2024, data centres would account for around 1.5% of the world's electricity consumption. This share is set to double by 2030, to equal Japan's total electricity consumption today.
