Latest news with #SLS
Globe and Mail
13 hours ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Boeing Stock Set for a Ride as NASA Progresses in Artemis II Program
NASA's Artemis II mission, the first crewed flight in its lunar return program, set to launch in April 2026, has reached critical milestones in recent months, reigniting investor interest in aerospace giant Boeing BA, a key contractor in the Space Launch System (SLS) program. On July 2, 2025, NASA announced on its Facebook page that the Program Specific Engineering Test for the Artemis II core stage had been completed. In early June, the Artemis II team conducted its first mission simulation to rehearse lunar science operations for the upcoming crewed mission. Earlier, in March, the integration of the Artemis II SLS core stage with its solid rocket boosters was successfully completed, which was another key milestone in preparing the rocket for launch. To this end, it is imperative to mention that the SLS rocket, designed to carry astronauts farther into space than ever before, is led by Boeing as the prime contractor for its core stage, upper stage, and avionics systems. The jet giant is currently building the core stages for all future Artemis missions. Thus, for Boeing, Artemis II represents more than just a technological triumph — it's a strategic revenue driver. With the company's Defense, Space & Security segment accounting for nearly 36% of total revenues in 2024, space programs like Artemis are key to Boeing's efforts to gain from a diversified portfolio beyond its struggling commercial aviation business and provide it with a significant financial cushion. With Artemis II on track, NASA's commitment to sustaining the Artemis program through Artemis III and beyond implies recurring revenue potential for Boeing over the long run, given its deep involvement in every SLS flight configuration. As investor interest in space stocks has been gaining increasing traction these days, the continued success of the Artemis mission should strengthen Boeing's positioning in the $500 billion global space economy and offer a promising growth vector for its shares. The potential upside reflected in BA's price target further supports this thesis. Based on short-term price targets provided by 22 analysts, the average Zacks price target for Boeing implies a 6.4% upside from its last closing price. Other Space Stocks Warrant a Look Other stocks, involved in the SLS program and Artemis missions, like Lockheed Martin LMT and L3Harris Technologies Inc. LHX, also stand to benefit from the steady progress of the Artemis II mission. Notably, Lockheed is the prime contractor involved in the construction of Orion, the spacecraft that will carry the crew of four astronauts in the Artemis II mission. In May 2025, LMT achieved a significant milestone in the development of NASA's Orion spacecraft by officially transferring it to NASA's Exploration Ground Systems team, following the completion of the spacecraft's assembly and testing. On the other hand, L3Harris is involved in the Artemis II mission through its Aerojet Rocketdyne business unit, which provides the RS-25 engines that power the SLS core stage. In May 2025, Aerojet Rocketdyne completed installation of all four RS-25 main engines on the core stage of NASA's second SLS exploration rocket, which will be used in the Artemis II mission. The Zacks Rundown for BA Shares of Boeing have risen 22% year to date compared with the industry 's growth of 22.2%. From a valuation standpoint, BA is currently trading at a forward 12-month sales multiple of 1.80X, a roughly 18.9% discount when stacked up with the industry average of 2.22X. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BA's 2025 and 2026 sales implies a year-over-year uptick of 25.6% and 16.2%, respectively. The same for its earnings per share for 2025 has moved north over the past 60 days, while the same for 2026 has moved south. BA stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days Just released: Experts distill 7 elite stocks from the current list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys. They deem these tickers "Most Likely for Early Price Pops." Since 1988, the full list has beaten the market more than 2X over with an average gain of +23.5% per year. So be sure to give these hand picked 7 your immediate attention. See them now >> 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 L3Harris Technologies Inc (LHX): Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (
NDTV
17 hours ago
- Business
- NDTV
GOP Tax Package Gives NASA Billions After Donald Trump Proposed Cuts
The massive GOP tax and spending package, passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday, will provide $10 billion to NASA programs that the administration had proposed to partially cut, including the space agency's marquee moon program and operations at the International Space Station. The reconciliation package includes $4.1 billion for NASA's Boeing Co.-built Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket and $20 million directed to the Lockheed Martin Corp. Orion crew capsule to help fund the fourth and fifth missions of the agency's Artemis moon program. These missions, which Trump had suggested canceling in his original budget request, would establish a lunar space station called Gateway and utilize a contracted landing system from Blue Origin for the first time to place humans on the moon. President Donald Trump is scheduled to sign the bill into law at 5 p.m. local time in Washington on Friday, according to the White House. In May, the administration had called to phase out the "grossly expensive and delayed" SLS rocket and Orion crew capsule after the third Artemis mission and replace them with commercial options for sending humans to the moon. The tax package also allocates $1.25 billion for maintaining the International Space Station over the next five years after the administration had instead proposed reducing crew and cargo missions to the orbiting laboratory. It further directs $700 million for a Mars communication spacecraft that could assist with bringing samples of Martian soil back to Earth, a long-term science initiative the White House had planned to outright cancel. Congress's push to allocate billions of dollars to the space agency suggests that lawmakers may be concerned about sustaining some of NASA's most prominent programs. The Artemis program in particular has been fiercely supported in Congress in part because the development of the SLS rocket and Orion crew capsule supports tens of thousands of jobs in Republican-controlled states like Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. Lawmakers have also made the case that the current Artemis architecture is the fastest way to beat China to the moon and protect the US's national security interests. The legislation also highlights Congress's desire for NASA to send humans back to the moon. Trump, while being advised by SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, had previously called for sending humans to Mars, signaling a potential change in direction for the space agency. The package imposes a fee on rockets and spacecraft that launch to space and land back on Earth, a charge that is likely to most directly affect SpaceX, the world's most prolific launch provider. The provision is projected to generate around $60 million to support the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation through 2034, according to a summary of the bill. Other last-minute adds to the legislation included a tax credit for spaceports, which would give these facilities the ability to issue tax-exempt bonds, and a provision allocating $85 million to transfer one of NASA's historic Space Shuttle vehicles to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for public exhibition. The transfer of the shuttle, a win for the Texas delegation, narrowly made it into the legislation after being subject to a review by the Senate rules-keeper for final inclusion.
Gizmodo
2 days ago
- Science
- Gizmodo
Rocket Engines That Flew 22 Space Shuttle Missions Are Ready for NASA's Next Moon Mission
NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) is ready to fly with its four shuttle-era engines. The rocket, outfitted with the RS-25 engines, recently passed a critical milestone that put the integrated system to the test, using a decades-old design on a new launch vehicle. NASA teams successfully completed the RS-25 engine checkout tests at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ensuring seamless communication between the SLS core stage and its engines ahead of the first crewed mission to the lunar environment in more than 50 years. Three of the four engines being used for the upcoming Artemis 2 mission have already flown a combined 22 missions as part of NASA's iconic Shuttle program, which ran from 1981 to 2011, while one engine will be making its launch debut. 'I learned during the Space Shuttle program to listen to the engines,' Bill Muddle, RS-25 field engineer, said in a statement. 'The engines talk to you, and you have to listen and understand what they are telling you to ensure they operate properly. They will tell you if they are in ill health and need to be tweaked or if a component is having an issue and needs to be replaced. Based on the [Program Specific Engineering Test], the engines all indicated they were healthy and ready for the pad.' The RS-25 engines were built by L3 Harris Technologies' Aerojet Rocketdyne division for the shuttle project, and NASA has a total of four contracts with the company. SLS Block 1, which launched the Artemis 1 mission in November 2022 and is meant to launch Artemis 2 and 3, is powered by four RS-25 engines in its core stage, along with two solid rocket boosters. Three of the four engines that are currently being used to power SLS for Artemis 2 were part of significant milestones in the Space Shuttle program. Engine 2047 flew on the final shuttle mission on July 21, 2011, while engine 2059 flew on the program's penultimate flight. Engine 2061 was part of the mission that assisted the assembly of the International Space Station. Engine 2062, on the other hand, is a newbie, ready to make its inaugural flight. 'Every day I come to work knowing that the RS-25 field engineering team has to take care of these engines, because we know we have humans riding in Orion on top of this vehicle and these engines have to perform flawlessly,' Muddle said. 'The lives of our astronauts are in the RS-25 team's hands for the eight and a half minutes those engines are firing during launch.' The 5.75-million-pound SLS uses components from NASA's Space Shuttle program, including solid rocket boosters built by Northrop Grumman, as a way to improve its affordability. NASA's original thought process, however, did not pan out too well. The launch vehicle has already gone $6 billion over budget, with the projected cost of each SLS rocket being $144 million more than anticipated. That would increase the overall cost of a single Artemis launch to at least $4.2 billion, according to a report released in 2024 by the office of NASA's inspector general. The giant Moon rocket faces uncertainty under the current administration's proposed budget, which laid out a plan to phase out SLS and its Orion capsule and replace them with commercial substitutes. This week, however, the Senate approved a budget reconciliation bill that would allocate an additional $6 billion to Artemis' current mission architecture. If signed into law, the legislation may just give SLS, and its shuttle-era engines, a fighting chance.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Another blow for Elon Musk after Trump gives $10b to his worst nightmare
President Donald Trump is just one stroke of a pen away from handing another major blow to Elon Musk 's plans for space exploration. On Tuesday, the US Senate passed its version of the 'Big, Beautiful Bill,' a massive piece of spending and tax cut legislation, which also set aside $10 billion for NASA's Artemis program. Artemis aims to return humans to the moon and establish a permanent US presence there by the end of the decade. Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, has been a vocal opponent of continued funding for missions to the moon, repeatedly lobbying for the Trump Administration and NASA to focus on colonizing Mars. If signed into law by Trump, the allotment to NASA would primarily go to pay for the Space Launch System (SLS), which utilizes single-use rockets to send the Artemis vehicles to the moon. The SLS rockets completely fly in the face of Musk's vision for space travel, as his company mainly relies on reusable rockets during crewed missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Before their very public falling out in May, it seemed as though Musk had convinced the president to phase out SLS rockets, with Trump proposing to slash NASA's budget and replace the SLS after Artemis' third planned mission in 2027. However, the new Republican-led megabill has reprioritized the moon missions and left Musk's dream of a crewed mission to Mars out on the White House lawn. Musk, the former head of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, has blasted both the use of billion-dollar, single-use rockets and the president's controversial spending bill as a waste of taxpayer money. 'Fundamental issue with SLS is that it's not reusable, which means that a billion-dollar rocket is blown up every launch!' the billionaire wrote on X in 2020. On June 3, Musk called the Big, Beautiful Bill a 'disgusting abomination' and urged Americans to contact their representatives to oppose it, citing how it would leave the US budget with more 'crushing' debt. Later that month, he described the Senate's draft of the spending bill as 'utterly insane and destructive' and 'political suicide' for the Republican Party. Musk also claimed that Trump signing the bill would destroy millions of jobs and harm industries of the future while favoring outdated ones. Despite his ongoing objections, the Big, Beautiful Bill will pay for the increasingly expensive disposable rockets, which NASA's Inspector General estimated will now cost as much as $2.5 billion per use. Through the 2025 fiscal year, NASA has already spent $93 billion on the Artemis program, with most of that money going towards the rockets, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, and a 'Human Landing System' so the astronauts can reach the moon's surface. Since the start of the Artemis program in 2019, only the unmanned Artemis I test flight in 2022 has reached space. The next mission, Artemis II, is scheduled for 2026, with Artemis III to follow in 2027. NASA has not conducted a manned moon mission since 1972. However, the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' has allocated $10 billion in new funding for NASA's Artemis program Roughly $2.6 billion of the funds would be allocated to the Lunar Gateway, a planned space station that will orbit the moon and help sustain NASA's future Artemis missions. Approximately, $20 million will go to the Orion spacecraft, specifically for building the fourth crew capsule for Artemis IV in 2028 and future lunar missions after that. If Trump signs this current version of the spending bill, he'll also be reviving a program he and Musk previously looked to kill before their friendship unraveled. The new funding includes $700 million for a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, which would support Martian core sample return missions. That project has already cost NASA billions as the agency has aimed to bring rock samples collected by the Martian rovers back to Earth to be studied. However, Trump's May 1 spending proposal for NASA slashed $6 billion from their budget, which would have paid for that research. Following the Senate's passage of the bill, that money is back in NASA's pockets. Another $1.25 billion would go to operating costs on the ISS, money that was also slashed by the president and Musk earlier this year. It's not all bad news for Musk, however, as SpaceX is still slated to receive $325 million to build a spacecraft that will help de-orbit the ISS by the end of the decade. The decommissioning of the ISS has been another of Musk's major talking points when it comes to space exploration. The head of SpaceX has even called for the de-orbiting mission to be moved up to 2027, citing safety concerns raised by a former physicist and engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In June 2024, NASA awarded SpaceX a $843 million contract to build the deorbit vehicle, or USDV, that will be used to safely guide the ISS into the Pacific Ocean by 2030. The funding for continued ISS operations runs through 2029, essentially ending Musk's dream of bringing down the station earlier. Decommissioning the ISS ahead of schedule would not have been that simple anyway, and would require an agreement from all the space station's partners, not just the approval of President Trump.
Euronews
3 days ago
- Politics
- Euronews
US greenlights billions for Moon missions despite Musk's opposition
The US Senate approved $10 billion (€8.5 billion) in additional funding for Moon missions that are not supported by billionaire Elon Musk. Almost half the earmarked funds for NASA in 2025, or $4.1 billion (€3.49 billion), will build two Space Launch Systems (SLS) rockets for Artemis IV and V missions because it is the 'only human-rated rocket available that can get humans to the Moon'. The Senate is also granting $2.6 billion (€2.21 billion) to the Gateway space station, the first international space station to be built around the Moon, which it says is 'critical for establishing a sustained human presence on the Moon.' Musk has said in the past that the Space Launch System(SLS) rockets 'make him sad,' because they're not reusable, insinuating that a 'billion dollar rocket is blown up every launch'. The SpaceX CEO has also said the International Space Station (ISS) should be deorbited in favour of future Mars missions. The move comes after a very public fallout between Musk and US President Donald Trump, who suggested the initial cuts to Artemis missions in the first draft of the budget review. The rest of the 2025 budget for NASA includes funding for a Mars sample return rover, the procurement of the Orion spacecraft used for the Artemis missions, five years' worth of missions at the ISS and improvements to various American space centres. Artemis, Gateway cuts could've hurt Europe The previous NASA budget request only allowed funding to continue for the upcoming Artemis II mission, set to launch in 2026, and Artemis III, the first flight to return humans to the surface of the Moon, set for 2027. However, the budget cuts funding for future Artemis missions, including Artemis IV. Ahead of the Senate vote, European experts warned Euronews Next that NASA cuts to the Artemis missions and other space programmes could have a detrimental effect. The European Space Agency (ESA) builds European Space Modules (ESMs) that provide electricity and oxygen to Orion, the spacecraft picked by NASA for the Artemis missions to the surface of the Moon. The ESA also contributes three key elements for Gateway. Experts previously told Euronews Next that if the Trump administration's budget were to be passed, Europe would lose 'guaranteed, sustained presence in cislunar space' if the Artemis missions were to be defunded. There would have also been shutdowns to key production lines on the space modules and the Gateway hardware, they said.
