I had not realized that the launch we went to was scrubbed for good reason. Never knew the details. Do remember the traffic jam. Will alway remember Challenger.
Our new space race - between American corporations - is one of the largest things that gives me hope for the future. Despite all the bickering and backbiting we see daily, mankind is still reaching for the stars and getting closer to touching them.
Also, outside the business-side of things, I have great expectations for what the Webb Telescope will tell us about the origins of the universe. It arrived at the L2 Lagrange point without any issue (and extra fuel, which will prolong its scientific mission), and should tell us a lot about the cosmos.
"And we as humans, temporary inhabitants of a dust mote, as Carl Sagan said, did what we had to do. The Webb telescope is designed to ferret out the very first stars and galaxies that lit up the foggy aftermath of the Big Bang and initiated the grand crescendo of evolution that produced us, among other things, as well as to search for clues to whether the conditions might be right for other creatures’ emergence, on nearby exoplanets."
"There was no military or economic advantage in devoting 25 years and $10 billion of national treasure to build a telescope, of all things, devoted not to looking down at our enemies, but out across time and space, trying to decipher the nature and condition of our origins. We all share the quest even if we all don’t get the time and chance to obsess about it."
"It’s not just Einstein’s universe, it’s ours too. Our crib and our crypt."[1]
Keep an eye open for their next quarterly reports, which should give everyone a sense of how their launch business is doing and how well they're making money from their other acquisitions. (RKLB is trying to be a full-service space company, not just launches.)
Also, keep an eye open for upcoming launches. They should be demo-ing their reuse strategy (catch boosters with helicopters instead of drone ships) soon and that should give folks a reason to buy (if successful).
More launches soon should also buoy Astra (ASTR) and Virgin Orbit (VORB), but they're still in the process of ALSO proving their business model, which isn't a sure thing at this point. (There are valid open questions about whether the small launch market will ultimately be large enough to support everyone making a play in it.)
(Disclaimer: I'm long on all the companies listed above - especially Rocket Lab - so weigh my comment accordingly. That said, I do expect them to keep losing me money for the short term - next 5 years or so - until the space economy moves into its next phase, which I think will be like the expansion of the railroads into the American West OR even the establishment of shipping operations into the New World post-Columbus. Doing my homework now to see if there's anything I can learn from those periods as an investor.)
The Challenger disaster became the basis for thousands of management training hours preaching the gospel against group think. I think I got at least six weeks of it over a three-year period. I'm sure it was a thing in the military and airline industry also. It was a must for the nuclear power industry.
I had not realized that the launch we went to was scrubbed for good reason. Never knew the details. Do remember the traffic jam. Will alway remember Challenger.
Yeah I only learned that when I was doing research into the reason for the scrub. Chilling to think we were 31 seconds away from seeing a disaster.
Our new space race - between American corporations - is one of the largest things that gives me hope for the future. Despite all the bickering and backbiting we see daily, mankind is still reaching for the stars and getting closer to touching them.
Indeed.
I wonder when Rocketlab will rise again ;-)
Also, outside the business-side of things, I have great expectations for what the Webb Telescope will tell us about the origins of the universe. It arrived at the L2 Lagrange point without any issue (and extra fuel, which will prolong its scientific mission), and should tell us a lot about the cosmos.
"And we as humans, temporary inhabitants of a dust mote, as Carl Sagan said, did what we had to do. The Webb telescope is designed to ferret out the very first stars and galaxies that lit up the foggy aftermath of the Big Bang and initiated the grand crescendo of evolution that produced us, among other things, as well as to search for clues to whether the conditions might be right for other creatures’ emergence, on nearby exoplanets."
"There was no military or economic advantage in devoting 25 years and $10 billion of national treasure to build a telescope, of all things, devoted not to looking down at our enemies, but out across time and space, trying to decipher the nature and condition of our origins. We all share the quest even if we all don’t get the time and chance to obsess about it."
"It’s not just Einstein’s universe, it’s ours too. Our crib and our crypt."[1]
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/science/james-webb-space-telescope.html
Keep an eye open for their next quarterly reports, which should give everyone a sense of how their launch business is doing and how well they're making money from their other acquisitions. (RKLB is trying to be a full-service space company, not just launches.)
Also, keep an eye open for upcoming launches. They should be demo-ing their reuse strategy (catch boosters with helicopters instead of drone ships) soon and that should give folks a reason to buy (if successful).
More launches soon should also buoy Astra (ASTR) and Virgin Orbit (VORB), but they're still in the process of ALSO proving their business model, which isn't a sure thing at this point. (There are valid open questions about whether the small launch market will ultimately be large enough to support everyone making a play in it.)
(Disclaimer: I'm long on all the companies listed above - especially Rocket Lab - so weigh my comment accordingly. That said, I do expect them to keep losing me money for the short term - next 5 years or so - until the space economy moves into its next phase, which I think will be like the expansion of the railroads into the American West OR even the establishment of shipping operations into the New World post-Columbus. Doing my homework now to see if there's anything I can learn from those periods as an investor.)
The Challenger disaster became the basis for thousands of management training hours preaching the gospel against group think. I think I got at least six weeks of it over a three-year period. I'm sure it was a thing in the military and airline industry also. It was a must for the nuclear power industry.