Daily Archives: March 31, 2021

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Inspiration4, the worlds first all-civilian mission to space, today announced the final two members of the four-person crew that will undertake a historic voyage to the stars later this year. Christopher Sembroski of Everett, WA and Dr. Sian Proctor of Tempe, AZ will join previously announced crew member Hayley Arceneaux under the command of Jared Isaacman. SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket will launch the crew aboard a Dragon spacecraft later this year.

The full crew will be introduced publicly today for the first time from historic Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Sembroski and Proctor will represent the mission pillars of:

This opportunity is proof that hard work and perseverance can pay off in unimaginable ways, said Dr. Proctor. I have always believed that I was preparing for something special, and that moment has arrived with Inspiration4.

Proctor will serve as the Mission Pilot and back up the commander and support related needs throughout the mission.

Although Ive been fortunate to have spent years in the aerospace industry, I never imagined having the opportunity to reach the stars, especially through something as simple as supporting St. Jude, said Sembroski. I am honored to occupy the Generosity seat and look forward to using this platform to encourage everyone to be generous to others in whatever ways they are able.

Sembroski will serve as the Mission Specialist and will help manage payload, science experiments, communications to mission control and more.

Inspiration4 is completed by the other mission pillars of Leadership, represented by Isaacman, and Hope, represented by Arceneaux. Isaacman, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments (NYSE: FOUR) and a world record-holding pilot, created the Inspiration4 mission and donated the three crew seats to inspire humanity and raise money for the lifesaving mission of St. Jude. Arceneaux is a 29-year-old physician assistant who works at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis, TN and joined Inspiration4 last month. In addition to working at St. Jude, she was treated as a child for bone cancer at the preeminent care and research hospital and vowed to return to serve others. Arceneaux will serve as Medical Officer overseeing medical care and experiments on the mission.

Inspiration4s goal is to inspire humanity to support St. Jude here on earth while also seeing new possibilities for human spaceflight, said Isaacman. Each of these outstanding crew members embodies the best of humanity, and I am humbled to lead them on this historic and purposeful mission and the adventure of a lifetime.

All crew members will undergo commercial astronaut training by SpaceX on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft the very same Dragon spacecraft currently attached to the International Space Station supporting the Crew-1 mission. Once Dragon returns the Crew-1 astronauts back home to Earth, the SpaceX team will inspect and refurbish the spacecraft ahead of the Inspiration4 mission. Crew member training will include a specific focus on orbital mechanics, operating in microgravity, zero gravity, and other forms of stress testing. The crew will receive emergency preparedness training, spacesuit and spacecraft ingress and egress exercises, as well as partial- and full-mission simulations.

The mission is being targeted for no earlier than Sept. 15, 2021. It will launch from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida and will be carefully monitored at every step by SpaceX mission control as the spacecraft orbits the planet every 90 minutes along a customized flight path. The crew is targeting an approximate 540 km orbit, flying further than any human since Hubble, for an expected mission duration of approximately three days. In advance of the mission, the crew is working closely with SpaceX and multiple organizations to identify scientific research opportunities they can support while in orbit. Upon conclusion of the multi-day journey, Dragon will reenter Earths atmosphere for a soft water landing off the coast of Florida.

To learn more about Inspiration4 and how to support and follow this historic journey to space, visit http://www.Inspiration4.com and follow the mission on social media on Twitter (@inspiration4x), Facebook (@inspiration4mission), Instagram (@inspiration4) and YouTube (@Inspiration4) to receive the latest news on mission training, preparation and timing.

About Shift4 Payments

Shift4 Payments (NYSE: FOUR) is a leading provider of integrated payment processing and technology solutions, delivering a complete omnichannel ecosystem that extends beyond payments to include a wide range of commerce-enabling services. The companys technologies help power over 350 software providers in numerous industries, including hospitality, retail, F&B, ecommerce, lodging, gaming, and many more. The newly launched Shift4Shop platform offers a turnkey ecommerce experience includes a robust website builder, product and order management, customer marketing tools and more. With over 7,000 sales partners, the company securely processed more than $200 billion in payments volume for over 200,000 businesses in 2019. For more information, visit shift4.com.

About St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital

St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Its purpose is clear: Finding cures. Saving children. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to more than 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude wont stop until no child dies from cancer. St. Jude freely shares the discoveries it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. Visit St. Jude Inspire to discover powerful St. Jude stories of hope, strength, love and kindness. Join the St. Jude mission by visiting stjude.org, liking St. Jude on Facebook, following St. Jude on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, and subscribing to its YouTube channel.

Read more:

Final Crew Members Named for World's First All-Civilian Mission to Space - Business Wire

Space: the final investing frontier?

Hokey one-liners aside, private space travel, exploration and operation is one of the smallest and youngest industries we have left to invest in. Even if you're being generous, space-adjacent plays number in the dozens, and you've likely got the requisite fingers to count the pure plays. Yet investor interest is robust enough that a cottage industry of space ETFs has popped up over the past couple of years.

It's a growth market, to be sure. In a 2020 note, Morgan Stanley estimates "the global space industry could generate revenue of more than $1 trillion or more in 2040, up from $350 billioncurrently." And most of that will find its way into a number of larger existing sectors and industries.

"Near term, space as an investment theme is also likely to impact a number of industries beyond Aerospace & Defense, such as IT Hardware and Telecom sectors," Morgan Stanley says. "Yet, the most significant short- and medium-term opportunities may come from satellite broadband Internet access."

Satellite broadband will represent 50% of the projected growth of the global space economy by 2040 and as much as 70% in the most bullish scenario, Morgan Stanley says. It adds that launching satellites that offer broadband Internet service will help to drive down the cost of data, just as demand for that data explodes.

Although you could try to take a ride to the moon on an individual play or two, several space ETFs have cobbled together what they believe will be the beneficiaries of humanity's growing movement toward the stars. Here, we explore the three main players: products from Procure and SPDR, as well as the new ARK Invest space ETF.

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We'll start with the "oldest" space ETF but also the least pure in mission.

The SPDR S&P Kensho Final Frontiers ETF (ROKT, $39.91) got its start in October 2018, making it a relative newbie among fundsbut a grizzled ol' veteran among space ETFs.

But a key detail in the name spills the beans that this isn't a purely space-themed fund: "frontiers." As in plural.

ROKT's tracking index, the S&P Kensho Final Frontiers Index is (emphasis ours) "designed to capture companies whose products and services are driving innovation behind the exploration of deep space and deep sea." The underlying index is actually made up of stocks from two indexes, grabbing components from the S&P Kensho Space Index, as well as the deep sea exploration components of the S&P Kensho Drones Index.

It'd be easy to confuse the resultant 30-stock portfolio with a defense-industry ETF. Roughly two-thirds of assets are wrapped up in aerospace and defense stocks, including top holdings such as Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings (AJRD, 4.9%), Boeing (BA, 4.7%) and Northrop Grumman (NOC, 4.6%). The rest of the holdings are a smattering of research and consulting services firms (7.9%), industrial conglomerates (4.5%), industrial machinery (3.4%) and a few other industries.

It's always important to understand how an ETF is built, but this is especially the case when a "theme" (such as space) doesn't have enough pure-play stocks to fill the roster. That's because the fund's fortunes could rise and fall on any number of drivers outside the theme. With ROKT, for instance, changes in defense spending will likely have an outsized impact on its holdings.

Learn more about ROKT at the SPDR provider site.

The Procure Space ETF (UFO, $28.27) got its start just a few months after ROKT, in April 2019, but it has already accumulated more than five times the assets under management (AUM).

A clever ticket helps, but so, perhaps, does a more targeted focus on space.

The Procure Space ETF tracks an index of about 30 stocks that have material exposure to space-related industries. Per UFO's prospectus: "A company's space-related revenue must constitute either (a) a minimum of 20% of the company's total annual revenue, or (b) more than $500 million in annual revenue."

At the moment, Procure boasts that at least 80% of UFO's weight is allocated in stocks that derive a majority of revenues from space-related industries, such as satellite telecommunications, space-based imagery, rocket and satellite manufacturing and operation, and space technology, among others.

Indeed, UFO definitely skews more toward Morgan Stanley's perspective one that sees satellites producing half if not a majority of space-related growth over the next couple decades. Some 44% of the fund's assets are wrapped up in communication services stocks, including France's Eutelsat (5.2%), U.S. firm Garmin (GRMN, 5.2%) and Japan's Sky Perfect JSAT Group (5.1%).

Comparing these two established space ETFs, Todd Rosenbluth, Head of ETF & Mutual Fund Research for CFRA, says his fund currently favors ROKT "as we find many of the industrials positions, such as L3 Harris Technologies (LHX) and Northrop Grumman attractively valued." He also points out concern for UFO's prospects "because of its higher-risk smaller-cap holdings."

Learn more about UFO at the Procure provider site.

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The newest entrant in the space-ETF race is the ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF (ARKX, N/A), which launched March 30.

This fund comes from Cathie Wood's ARK Invest, which produced several of 2020's best-performing ETFs. The success of Wood's funds brought in a flood of assets, with the firm jumping from about $3.5 billion in AUM to $41.5 billion within a year.

That has made ARKX's launch one of the most anticipated of 2021 but investors might want to consider peeking under the hood rather than buying on name recognition alone.

"In short, this is a rare example when there's pent up demand for an ETF due to the firm behind it more than the investments inside, such as gold or Bitcoin," Rosenbluth says. "But investors might be surprised with what stocks are inside the portfolio since ARK has discretion to identify the companies that fit the theme and have the highest potential rather than following an index playbook."

ARKX, which aims to hold between 40 and 55 stocks, is an actively managed portfolio helmed by none other than Wood herself. It focus on four types of companies: Those involved in companies that deal in orbital aerospace platforms; those that deal in suborbital aerospace platforms; those that develop technologies used by space exploration-related companies (including 3D printing, robotics and AI, among others); and those that stand to benefit from aerospace activities (including GPS technology, imaging, drones and more).

Some of ARKX's holdings, such as Trimble (TRMB, 8.6%) and L3Harris Technologies (5.1%), are easy enough to explain and can be found in the other space ETFs. Interestingly, Wood gets exposure to 3D printing companies through her own fund, The 3D Printing ETF (PRNT, 6.0%).

But several of ARKX's initial holdings will raise an eyebrow or two.Among them are Netflix (NFLX), Amazon.com (AMZN) and even tractor maker Deere (DE).

"With thematic investing, there's significant room for interpretation by the index provider or active manager," Rosenbluth says. For instance, Cathie Wood tells Cinthia Murphy at ETF.com that China e-commerce play JD.com (JD) makes the cut because of its sophisticated logistics operations, "using drones to especially to help with supply chain management."

"Given ARK's track record of stock picking, we expect many investors are open to a discretionary approach," Rosenbluth says, but adds that, for now, UFO looks to be the most straightforward space ETF of the bunch.

Learn more about ARKX at the ARK Invest provider site.

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The Space (ETF) Race: UFO, ROKT and ARKX - Kiplinger's Personal Finance

COLLEGE STATION, TX One year ago, as the world watched the SpaceX crew Dragon Spacecraft launch to the international space station... very few knew that Texas A&M played a large role in the lead up to the launch.

In 2017, NASA came to Texas A&M and utilized the school's offshore technology research center to perform detailed testing for a specialized life raft. The life raft, which was tested right here in College Station, was specially developed to protect the spacecraft crew, in the event of an emergency, landing in the Gulf of Mexico during dangerous weather.

"When there was that impact and it was noted by NASA, all of a sudden, people got excited, but it's just that, it's just the excitement of being a part of something that is rather unusual." shared Richard Mercier, a Texas A&M civil and environmental engineering professor." It's a definite milestone and definite impact on the near future of space utilization and exploration."

The offshore technology research center provided NASA with large-scale simulations of the effects of wind, waves, and currents while conducting tests on the specially crafted raft.

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SpaceX and Texas A&M collaborate on the future of space travel equipment - KXXV News Channel 25

MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) The Exploreum Science Center is featuring Cosmos 2021: Adventure into the unknown! This features a collection of artifacts, interactives, props, rocket launchers, and more showcasing the history and future of space exploration.

The Exploreum partnered with NASA to make this showcase possible. There is a total of 3 exhibits that feature NASA.

This is a walk-through interactive maze for the whole family, you can navigate and learn about the history of flight and space travel, Wayne explained. The VS-300 was the first successful US helicopter.

There is an interactive rocket launcher where you can make your own rocket, crank up the pressure and launch it!

Youre going to make the fins on it to help it fly in a more stable way, then youre going to take it over to the launcher, crank up the pressure, and you can aim it at them press the button, Wayne explained.

The other two exhibits feature both the history and future of space exploration.

Rion Capsule which will be what will be what will carry the astronauts into space, being fired by the SLS Rocket, Wayne explained.

There is no up-charge to general admission and this exhibit will be featured until Labor Day. Come out to The Exploreum Science Center and learn more about space exploration!

Excerpt from:

NASA Exhibit features interactive rocket launcher, historical artifacts and more at the Exploreum! - WKRG News 5

When the American Queen Steamboat Co. launched its first ships on the Mississippi this month, it was among the first to sail since the pandemic under new health and safety protocols.

While the company will begin requiring all guests and crew to be vaccinated beginning in July, guests until then will only have to test negative for the virus before boarding.

To ease stress and confusion over which tests are accepted and ensure those tests are conducted as close to the sailing as possible, the company conducts PCR tests free of charge the day before the sailing at the hotel where guests stay overnight presailing as part of their normal itineraries.

That process for the American Countesschristening and preview sailing was indeed stress-free and seamless. We arrived in New Orleans Saturday afternoon, checked into the Hilton Riverside, then walked down the hall where their partners from Vikand Solutions had representatives waiting to conduct our preboarding health screenings and tests.

Onboard, most guests and crew on our sailing had already been vaccinated. Still, everyone is required to wear masks in public spaces when social distancing isn't possible, except of course when eating and drinking. And masks are required on coaches and excursions.

A year ago that might have seemed restrictive. But after a year of social distancing and mask-wearing, it hardly seemed odd to have to continue that on the ship.

In fact, the only thing that really felt different between this sailing and cruises prior to the pandemic was the luxury of space, thanks to reduced capacity.

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For Countess pax: Seamless tests, masks and the luxury of space - Travel Weekly

Scientists have identified new bacterial strains that they said could potentially support plant growth in space.

The discovery could help astronauts grow their own food in space stations, otherwise known as space farming, according to an Indian university involved in the research.

New bacterial strains were identified from different locations on the International Space Station during flights.

Scientists found the presence of genes involved in promoting plant growth in genome analysis of the new strains as part of the research, published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

The findings may help in creating fuel which could support plants in withstanding stressful environments such as space, according to the University of Hyderabad, whose scientists worked with researchers in the US - including from Nasas Jet Propulsion Laboratory- for the study.

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The studys lead authors said the strains could possess biotechnologically useful genetic determinants that may help growing plants in extreme places where resources are minimal.

For astronauts on the International Space Station, cargo ships transport their food to them, unlike the early days of space travel when food took the form of cubes and semi-liquids stuffed inside tubes, according to Nasa.

In a paper published in The Journal of Nutrition last year, Nasa scientists outlined the requirements and challenges of creating a food system that can support missions between low-Earth orbit and Mars - which looked at nutrition, safety and reliability.

Prepackaged foods are a great candidate because they are easy to prepare, easy to consume. They already have a safe and long history in spaceflight, but there are some challenges with themthat nutrition and quality degrade over time, Grace Douglas, a Nasa scientist, said.

So, on longer missions, it would be nice to get a fresh component.

There may be issues over the reliability of growing food on space missions, she added.

One of the big concerns with growing food is that if it doesnt grow and you were depending on it, now you have insufficient food, which can be a very, very big concern when youre going on these missions, Ms Douglas said.

Nasa astronauts said last year that the first ever space-grown lettuce was as safe to eat as one grown on earth.

The food was part of an experiment involving crowns grown in individually sealed units of ceramic soil under red LED lighting for over a month.

The year before, China successfully germinated a seed taken to the Moon, making it the first time any biological matter had grown in space.

Further research is underway to determine what the discovery of the new bacterial strains found on the ISS could mean for space farming, according to the University of Hyderabad.

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Bacterial strain identified that may support plant growth in space - The Independent