Latest news with #GPSIII
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Lockheed Launches SV08 GPS III Satellite: Time to Buy the Stock?
Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT has recently launched its eighth GPS III satellite (SV08) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. These satellites, enabled to provide enhanced positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services for both civilian and military users, support a range of critical applications, including aviation, maritime navigation, land transport, and search and rescue. The rising demand for secure, high-precision navigation, communications, and defense systems is accelerating satellite deployment and fueling the expansion of the global space economy. In this evolving landscape, Lockheed is well-positioned to benefit, particularly following its successful GPS III SV08 launch, which showcases its ability to rapidly deliver mission-critical space assets. The company offers end-to-end space solutions, from human spacecraft to advanced space-enabled defense technologies, and continues to innovate to maintain a competitive edge. Recently, Lockheed has enhanced the GPS ground segment by integrating M-Code Early Use, enabling secure military communications for U.S. and allied forces worldwide. As investor interest in space stocks grows, driven by the increasing relevance of satellite-based services and defense technologies, Lockheed stands out as a strong contender for portfolio inclusion. However, while the company's recent achievements and strong position in the space sector are noteworthy, prudent investors should avoid making decisions based solely on a single event. A comprehensive evaluation of Lockheed's long-term growth potential, stock market performance, valuation, and possible risks is essential. Let's take a deeper look at these factors to assess whether Lockheed offers a compelling investment opportunity right now. For defense contractors like Lockheed, order flow for its combat-proven weapons from the Pentagon and other U.S. allies remains a major growth driver for its operational results. Notably, the company was successful in securing a handful of multi-million-dollar contracts in the first quarter of 2025, which culminated in a record backlog count worth $173 million as of March 30, 2025. Such a solid backlog count bolsters LMT's long-term revenue prospects. On the other hand, an expansionary defense budget also plays a vital role in bolstering U.S.-based defense stocks like Lockheed. To this end, it is imperative to mention that in May 2025, a White House report revealed President Trump's proposal for a 13% rise in U.S. defense spending to $1.01 trillion for fiscal 2026, emphasizing space dominance, nuclear deterrence, and the development of a next-gen missile defense system — the Golden Dome. As a key player in space and missile defense, Lockheed stands to benefit significantly from this increased budget, which is expected to drive strong revenue growth in the coming quarters through expanded government contracts. The aforementioned factors thus position Lockheed for robust long-term growth, which is further reflected in the Zacks Consensus Estimate for LMT's long-term (three-to-five years) earnings growth rate of 10.5%. Now let's take a quick sneak peek at its near-term estimates to check if those mirror a similar growth story. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LMT's 2025 and 2026 sales implies an improvement of 4.6% and 3.8%, respectively, year over year. However, its 2025 earnings estimates suggest a dismal performance. Nevertheless, LMT's 2026 earnings estimate calls for a rise of 9.4%. On the other hand, the near-term annual bottom-line estimates suggest upward movement over the past 60 days. This indicates analysts' increasing confidence in the stock's earnings-generating capabilities. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Shares of Lockheed have lost 1.2% in the year-to-date period, underperforming the Zacks Aerospace-Defense industry's growth of 19% and the broader Zacks Aerospace sector's rise of 18%. The stock has also lagged the S&P 500's return of 0.4% during the same period. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research On the contrary, LMT's industry peers, The Boeing Company BA and Embraer S.A. ERJ have gained in the year-to-date period. Shares of ERJ rose 25.3%, while those of BA grew 20.6%. In terms of valuation, LMT's forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) is 16.93X, a discount to its peer group's average of 17.35X. This suggests that investors will be paying a lower price than the company's expected earnings growth compared to its peers. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Despite its strong position as a defense contractor, Lockheed faces notable challenges, particularly from labor shortages that affect the broader aerospace-defense industry. According to the 2024 "On the Horizon" Workforce Study by the Aerospace Industries Association and PwC, the sector is grappling with high attrition rates, averaging 13% over the past two years, significantly above the national average of 3.8%. This talent drain, driven by rising retirements, raises concerns over production delays and quality control. As aircraft manufacturers ramp up output post-pandemic, staffing gaps risk disrupting supply chains and timelines. For prominent defense contractors like Lockheed, Boeing and Embraer, such labor constraints could hinder delivery targets, potentially affecting operational performance and placing downward pressure on their share price if milestones are missed. Moreover, LMT's long-term debt-to-capital ratio is higher than the industry average (as one can see below). Such a high debt-to-capital ratio suggests that the company relies more heavily on debt financing compared to its industry, indicating a higher financial risk and a greater burden on cash flow due to interest payments. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research To conclude, investors interested in Lockheed should wait for a better entry point, as its poor 2025 earnings expectation, dismal performance at the bourses, and a relatively high debt load warrant caution despite offering a more favorable P/E ratio than its peers. However, those who already own this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock may choose to stay invested, as the company's upbeat sales estimates, recent satellite launches and growing space economy offer solid long-term growth opportunities. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report The Boeing Company (BA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Embraer-Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica (ERJ) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
321 Launch: Space news you may have missed over the past week (June 2)
A SpaceX rocket will take to the Florida sky Wednesday morning. As of Tuesday afternoon, SpaceX has officially confirmed the next rocket launch is set for 9:30 a.m. on May 28 from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A. Read the full story here. Launch recap: Scroll down to read updates from the SpaceX launch of Starlink satellites at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 28 from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A. Read the full story here. After major setbacks during the past two Starship flights, SpaceX was counting on success this time as it launched the massive Starship on its ninth test flight from Texas — however the May 27 launch saw yet another dramatic ending. From launch to loss of the ship, high-quality footage was sent to the live coverage via Starlink. The world watched as once again things did not go as hoped for the massive launch system, which will eventually launch from Florida. The May 27 flight was aimed at testing much more than what transpired. Read the full story here. A SpaceX rocket took to the Florida sky during the bright, early hours of Wednesday, May 28. The Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron predicted an 85% chance of favorable weather during the early window, and just as predicted, skies were clear and a heat index of 91 degrees was felt. Read the full story here. Space Florida has authorized leasing 25 acres on northern Merritt Island for Project Beep, an undisclosed aerospace company that plans to build a future quarter-billion-dollar facility and create about 1,000 jobs just outside NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Little information has been publicly released about this confidential company. Read the full story here. Look for a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to propel a GPS III satellite into orbit for the Space Force during an afternoon launch Friday, May 30, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Falcon 9 will lift off with the Lockheed Martin-designed and -built satellite at 1:37 p.m. for this GPS III-7 mission, SpaceX announced. The launch window will expire one minute later. Read the full story here. As Florida leaders call for moving the nation's space-agency headquarters to Brevard County, Space Florida is launching a study about how NASA and U.S. Space Force operations could be merged at Cape Canaveral. Space Florida President and CEO Robert Long on Wednesday told board members of the state aerospace agency that a 'unified model' would support the ongoing growth of commercial space operations and ensure government missions can be more efficient and sustainable. Read the full story here. Launch recap: Scroll down to review live updates from the Friday, May 30, liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on the GPS III-7 mission for the Space Force. Read the full story here. Dodging raindrops, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket bolted off the pad on a Space Force mission Friday, May 30, shortly after a wave of thunderstorms and showers soaked Cape Canaveral and surrounding areas. The rocket deployed a GPS III satellite into medium-Earth orbit after the 1:37 p.m. liftoff from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — where a special marine warning had advised boaters of steep waves, gusty winds and possible hail offshore. Read the full story here. Two veteran astronauts were inducted May 31 into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame — and one of them had to miss the induction ceremony as she's preparing to launch on yet another mission. Organized by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, the annual ceremony was held under Space Shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The new inductees are Bernard Harris and Peggy Whitson, bringing the total number of astronauts in the Hall of Fame to 111. Read the full story here. With the new NASA budget proposal that includes deep cuts heading to Congress and NASA still without a leader, a surprise twist came May 31: Jared Isaacman was being dropped as President Trump's choice to become the next NASA administrator. Isaacman's confirmation as the head of NASA had been expected Monday. But instead the White House announced Isaacman was no longer in the running. Trump said on Truth Social that he will propose a new nominee. Read the full story here. Scrub recap: Scroll down to read updates from the scrubbed SpaceX Starlink 12-19 mission, which was set to liftoff early June 2. The next launch attempt is no earlier than 12:42 a.m. on June 3. Read the full story here. For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter. Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@ Twitter/X: @RickNeale1 Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: 321 Launch: Space news you may have missed over the past week (June 2)
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Space Force demos rapid turnaround on latest GPS III launch
The Space Force successfully sent its latest GPS III satellite to orbit Friday, demonstrating the ability to prepare and launch a military spacecraft on condensed timelines. The satellite flew on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida. GPS III, built by Lockheed Martin, is the latest version of the navigation and timing system and is designed to provide improved anti-jamming capabilities. It will broadcast additional military and civilian signals. Along with delivering more GPS capacity, the launch was the second in a series of Rapid Response Trailblazer missions the Space Force is running to test whether it can quickly launch high-value satellites in response to national security needs. The goal is to condense a process that can take up to two years down to a handful of months. The first mission, which flew in December, reduced the time between launch notification and lift off to around five months — and the May 30th mission shortened it even further, to around 90 days. 'What we're demonstrating here is that it is possible with our current vehicle systems that if there is a need to get something on orbit quickly, something that is unpredicted at the time we put it in our contract, we have the capacity, and we know what it would take in order to make that happen,' Mission Director Walt Lauderdale told reporters in a May 28 pre-launch briefing. The Space Force has shown through its Tactically Responsive Launch program that it can launch small payloads on commercial rockets on demand, but RRT is proving that capability on larger, more complex payloads. The service opted to conduct its first RRT missions with GPS III satellites for a few reasons. For starters, the military signal, M-Code, is in high demand from DOD users. In both cases, the spacecraft had been previously slated to fly on United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket, which until recently hadn't been certified to fly national security missions. Because GPS III satellites are qualified to fly on multiple vehicles, the Space Force was able to fairly easily swap the missions to a SpaceX rocket, allowing it to test the flexibility of both the launch firm and Lockheed as the satellite provider. According to Col. Andrew Menschner, commander of Mission Delta 31, the team has shared the importance of multi-vehicle qualification with Space Force leadership, and he expects more spacecraft will have that built-in flexibility in the future. The effort also benefitted from the fact there were multiple GPS III satellites in Lockheed's factory waiting for a ride, Menschner said in the same briefing. Using those spacecraft for a mission like this helped demonstrate the utility of having systems on standby, ready to launch when needed. 'We're trying to prove that we can quickly respond to an on-orbit failure of a vehicle, but we're also trying to show the best ways to be resilient now that we have the timelines of launch headed to much shorter durations,' Menschner said. 'One form of resilience is having a completed vehicle in the factory and ready to go to respond.' Lauderdale noted that while these missions have proven faster timelines are possible, the service may not opt to apply the concepts to all future GPS launches. Spacecraft readiness will more likely be the driver. 'I wouldn't expect it's going to become a regular cadence, but we are demonstrating what it would take in order to respond to something unexpected and how we can do that to support the warfighter,' he said.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SpaceX launches GPS satellite for Space Force after rains, storms sweep past Cape Canaveral
Dodging raindrops, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket bolted off the pad on a Space Force mission Friday, May 30, shortly after a wave of thunderstorms and showers soaked Cape Canaveral and surrounding areas. The rocket deployed a GPS III satellite into medium-Earth orbit after the 1:37 p.m. liftoff from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — where a special marine warning had advised boaters of steep waves, gusty winds and possible hail offshore. During the SpaceX GPS III-7 launch webcast, Zachary Luppen, an avionics supply chain engineer, said the next-generation satellite will improve resistance to jamming and cyberattacks, boost military signal strength and add signals for civilian applications. Cape Canaveral: Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, Axiom, ULA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral "Billions of devices and systems around the world rely on the U.S. Space Force-provided GPS signals. Not only is it critical to national security technologies, but everything from navigation on smart phones and in cars, boats and aircraft to disaster response, transportation systems, Federal Aviation Administration operations and even ATMs and banking transactions. All of these depend on GPS," Luppen told launch viewers. "GPS III is the next generation of satellites required to maintain the resiliency of the GPS constellation and improve services to meet user demand," he said. On May 28, Department of Defense officials announced Lockheed Martin received a $510 million Space Force contract modification to design and build two future GPS III satellites. Work will be performed in Littleton, Colorado, with a November 2031 projected completion date. Prior to liftoff, odds of inclement weather remained a 50-50 coin flip past the point when SpaceX crews started fueling the Falcon 9 roughly 35 minutes before launch. Thunderstorms had lit up National Weather Service radar screens in angry-looking red along the northern portion of the Cape about 1½ hours before launch, and widespread rain fell across Launch Complex 40. Meteorologists issued a special marine warning for a north-south swath roughly ranging from Scottsmoor through Titusville to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Winds topping 34 knots, steep waves and pea-sized hail were possible within this warning zone, which swept offshore by 1:15 p.m. The Space Force mission marked the Falcon 9 first-stage booster's fourth flight, SpaceX reported. The booster — which previously launched CRS-32, NROL-69 and one Starlink mission — landed on the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean after stage separation. SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch clocked in as the 46th orbital rocket launch thus far this year from KSC and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Next on the Eastern Range schedule, SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink broadband satellites during an early morning mission Monday, June 2, an FAA operations plan advisory indicates. Launch window: 12:57 a.m. to 5:28 a.m. That rocket will also lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. For the latest news and launch schedule from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter. Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@ Twitter/X: @RickNeale1 Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX launches GPS III Space Force satellite to update constellation
Business Insider
31-05-2025
- Automotive
- Business Insider
Lockheed Martin-built GPS III satellite launches into orbit
Lockheed Martin (LMT) announced the eighth GPS III space vehicle, designed and built by the company, successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, at 1:37 p.m. EDT. GPS III SV08 executed an accelerated launch call-up in just over three months. The company stated these GPS III satellites provide accurate and resilient positioning, navigation, and timing capabilities for civilian and military users. GPS III SV08 is now under operational control at Lockheed Martin's Denver Launch & Checkout Operations Center. Confident Investing Starts Here:
