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☆ NASA awards Firefly Aerospace $112 mln contract for far-side moon lander
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 14 (Reuters) - NASA on Tuesday said it had picked U.S. rocket builder Firefly Aerospace to put a lander on the moon's far side in 2026, under a nearly $112 million contract. "The commercial lander will deliver two agency payloads, as well as communication and data relay satellite for lunar orbit, which is an ESA (European Space Agency) collaboration with NASA," the U.S. space agency said. NASA handed a similar award of $73 million to spacecraft software firm Draper last year to deliver science and technology payloads to the far side of the moon in 2025. NASA awarded Cedar Park, Texas-based Firefly $93.3 million in 2021 to carry a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the moon in 2023. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju SamuelOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Investors reeled in their expectations for global central bank rate hikes, and bank stocks tumbled once again. Reuters GraphicsIn the money markets, a closely watched indicator of credit risk in the U.S. banking system edged up on Monday, as did other indicators of credit risk in the euro zone. The gap between two-year euro swap rates and two-year German bond yields , widened by around 20 basis points to 83 basis points, to the highest since Nov. 11. Reuters GraphicsIn Germany, two-year bond yields dropped more than 50 basis points, much more than a drop of 37 basis points on swap rates. Back in late 2008, when failed investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed, this swap rate went as negative as 300 bps.

Investors reeled in their expectations for global central bank rate hikes, and bank stocks tumbled once again. Reuters GraphicsIn the money markets, a closely watched indicator of credit risk in the U.S. banking system edged up on Monday, as did other indicators of credit risk in the euro zone. The gap between two-year euro swap rates and two-year German bond yields , widened by around 20 basis points to 83 basis points, to the highest since Nov. 11. Reuters GraphicsIn Germany, two-year bond yields were last down over 40 basis points, much more than a drop of 24 basis points on swap rates. Back in late 2008, when failed investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed, this swap rate went as negative as 300 bps.

☆ Biden budget seeks $27.2 billion for NASA, with increases for moon and Mars programs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Vice President Kamala Harris meets with NASA astronauts Shannon Walker and Joe Acaba at Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a tour on Aug. 29, 2022. President Joe Biden is seeking to increase the budget for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to $27.2 billion next year, according to a proposed 2024 budget released Thursday. The request represents a 7% increase from NASA's budget in fiscal year 2023, with more funds allocated for the space agency's Artemis lunar program. In addition to $8.1 billion for Artemis, $500 million above the prior year, the Biden administration aims to earmark $949 million for a mission to return Mars rock and soil samples. The White House request does not represent what NASA's budget will be in 2024, as Congress often adjusts budget amounts during approval.

☆ Giambattista Valli fills fall runway show with tweeds at Paris Fashion Week
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Mimosa Spencer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] A model presents a creation by designer Giambattista Valli as part of his Fall-Winter 2023/2024 Women's ready-to-wear collection show during Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France, March 3, 2023. REUTERS/Sarah MeyssonnierPARIS, March 3 (Reuters) - Giambattista Valli switched things up for his fall runway show at Paris Fashion Week, taking a step back from his signature, airy floral styles to focus on tweeds, which he also offered for men. The show opened with a black, sleeveless jumpsuit cinched at the waist with a gold belt, and worn over a white t-shirt. Further shaking the fabric from its traditional twin-set role, Valli worked the material into long overcoats, loose jackets, mini-dresses and a bright, red jumpsuit. Popular with the red carpet set, and known for voluminous, tulle dresses, Valli broadened his fan base with a collaboration with H&M in 2019.

☆ SpaceX capsule delivers latest four-member crew to International Space Station
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

March 3 (Reuters) - A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule arrived safely at the International Space Station (ISS) after a brief delay early on Friday, carrying two U.S. astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a United Arab Emirates astronaut on a six-month science mission. The autonomously flying spacecraft dubbed Endeavour docked with the space station shortly after 1:40 a.m. EST (0640 GMT) on Friday, about 25 hours after launching from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Docking maneuvers fell behind schedule as the Crew Dragon was making its final approach to the station. The ISS crew also is responsible for performing maintenance and repairs aboard the station, and to prepare for the arrival and departure of other astronauts and cargo payloads. Rounding out the four-man Crew 6 was Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, 42, who like Alneyadi is an engineer and spaceflight rookie.

Austin has emerged as a hub for relocating tech talent during the pandemic. Investors in Austin closed 416 deals in 2022 worth $4.9 billion, according to PitchBook. For this list, we asked VCs from across the country about which Texas investors we need to know. To qualify, an investor needed to be a Texas resident, but their firms and portfolio companies could be anywhere. Check out Insider's list of 46 top investors in Texas.

☆ Don't bet against American markets, says Artemis Global Equities' Simon Edelsten
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailDon't bet against American markets, says Artemis Global Equities' Simon EdelstenSimon Edelsten, Artemis Global Equities manager, joins 'Closing Bell: Overtime' to discuss trends in the global markets.

☆ NASA’s $3.5 billion plan to redesign its aging spacesuits
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Magdalena Petrova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

NASA has been using the current spacesuits on the International Space Station for decades and they are showing their age. "The spacesuits that are being used now in the International Space Station by NASA are suits that were really designed in the '70s. Now the agency is turning to two commercial companies: Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies , to build and maintain its new generation of spacesuits. Under the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services Contract, or xEVAS, NASA is providing Collins and Axiom, along with a number of their industry partners, with up to $3.5 billion through 2034. NASA hopes to use this new suit on the International Space Station by 2026.

East Palestine, Ohio CNN —Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw defended his company’s actions since the disaster caused by the derailment of one of its trains in East Palestine, Ohio, and promised the railroad will pay for the cleanup. “Norfolk Southern is committed to the community and citizens of East Palestine,” Shaw told CNN Tuesday. “From day one I’ve made the commitment that Norfolk Southern is going to remediate the site,” Shaw said. Norfolk Southern “started as soon as the derailment occurred,” he said. If folks in this community want bottled water, they’re going to get it.”

That number includes both rocket launches and capsule reentries, and has been steadily climbing. A Falcon Heavy rocket launches the USSF-67 mission on January 15, 2023 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "Air space is going to be a critical, critical issue," Isom said, calling on new industries to contribute to the cost of air traffic control. A graph of FAA-licensed or permitted commercial space launches (excludes launches licensed by other U.S. government agencies, such as NASA or the Department of Defense). Together they create a moving target for space launches and the commercial airlines eyeing the same air space.

☆ Elon Musk says SpaceX is planning to attempt a launch of its Starship spacecraft in March
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Starship could launch next month "if remaining tests go well." The SpaceX CEO's comment came in response to a Twitter user asking if Starship was almost ready for launch. Two crewed missions to the moon, Artemis 3 and 4, are expected to launch in 2025 and 2027. The Starship test flight will launch from the Starbase spaceport site in Boca Chica, Texas, federal filings show. SpaceX is yet to officially announce a date for its Starship launch and did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

[1/2] Men walk past an electric board displaying Nikkei and other countries' indexes outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan January 16, 2023. After $14 trillion was wiped off world shares in 2022, $4 trillion has been added back this month. "Markets are in this Goldilocks-scenario of OK growth, slowing inflation and softer monetary policy," said Richard Dias, founder of London-based investment consultancy Acorn Macro. Major central banks have added almost 3,000 basis points to global borrowing costs in this tightening cycle to date. "We've had a monumental rally in government bonds based on expectations we've reached the peak in interest rates," he said.

They have soared in popularity over the last year, in part from social media attention and billionaires like Elon Musk touting the drugs’ weight loss effects. Ozempic is not approved for weight loss, but doctors sometimes prescribe it off-label for that purpose. Harper took Ozempic off-label for weight loss from May until November (she paused while moving to Washington state but plans to start again). For Yazeed, weight loss was not the reason she went on Ozempic, nor was it a goal. He hasn't experienced side effects or weight loss from Ozempic, he said, but he recognizes that isn't true for everyone.

☆ NASA and DARPA plan to test a nuclear-powered rocket that could take humans to Mars in record time
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

NASA aims to test a nuclear-powered rocket within five years, the agency said Tuesday. The space agency aims to put humans on Mars for the first time by the late 2030s. The agency is teaming up with the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to make a rocket that could reach Mars in record time. The agency aims to put humans on Mars, for the first time, by the late 2030s or early 2040s. Transit to Mars using a nuclear-powered rocket could take four months, a lot shorter than the usual nine months for older rocket models, Reuters reported.

“Now, we have a better understanding of the kind of benefits that operating in cislunar space can bring countries back home.”Though definitions sometimes differ, cislunar space generally refers to the space between Earth and the moon, including the moon's surface and orbit. In 2021, Holzinger co-authored a report titled “A Primer on Cislunar Space“ to help U.S. government officials understand the ins and outs of cislunar space. That interest is apparent: Last year, the Space Force identified cislunar operations as a development priority, and in April established the 19th Space Defense Squadron to oversee cislunar space. In November, the White House released its own strategy for interagency research on "responsible, peaceful, and sustainable exploration and utilization of cislunar space." Together, these factors could make it difficult to manage traffic in cislunar space, particularly if adversaries intentionally try to mask their activities there.

☆ Boeing's role in building NASA's new rocket
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +18 min

The mobile launcher with NASA's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft rolls out of the Vehicle Assembly Building's High Bay 3 to Launch Complex 39B on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “I worked over 50 Space Shuttle launches,” Boeing SLS program manager John Shannon told CNN by phone. Though more than 1,000 companies were involved with designing and building SLS, Boeing’s work involved the largest and most expensive portion of the rocket. The SLS rocket ended up flying its first launch more than six years later than originally intended. All of the “major components” for a third SLS rocket are also completed, Shannon added.

☆ What happens when you stop taking a weight loss drug? Many people gain the weight back.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Berkeley-Lovelace-Jr.Jpg | Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

She didn't find success until her doctor prescribed Wegovy, a weight loss drug, in August 2021. But it all stopped in February, when Bayandor's health insurance denied her coverage, forcing her to stop taking the medication. Artemis BayandorBayandor's experience isn't uncommon: Widespread shortages of Wegovy, a popular weight loss aid, have forced some people in the U.S. to stop taking it, leading them to gain some — or all — of their weight back. "When you're at that max weight loss, your body's hunger hormones are the highest," she said. In May, an unrelated thyroid issue landed her in the hospital and forced her to stop taking Wegovy.

Japan's 10-year bond yield, trading at 0.4%, fell on Wednesday but is not far off its highest levels since 2015. Total holdings of foreign bonds by Japanese institutional investors, excluding Japan's $1 trillion reserve portfolio, reached $3 trillion at their peak. GOING HOMEThe implications of higher inflation and a possible end to ultra-low rates are not lost on Japanese investors. Still, anticipating a shift, Japanese investors sold a net 2.1 trillion yen ($15.94 billion) of foreign bonds in December, marking a fourth straight month of selling. According to Nomura, Japanese investors have been far more active buyers of global and overseas equities than domestic stocks in the last decade.

☆ SpaceX's most powerful rocket returns to flight
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

With each launch, the Falcon Heavy rocket puts on a dramatic show back on Earth. It’s a signature move for SpaceX, which routinely recovers and reuses its rocket boosters to drive down the cost of launches. All about this rocketFor years, the Falcon Heavy was the world’s most powerful operational rocket. If successful, SpaceX’s Starship would dethrone the SLS as the most powerful rocket flying today. Both the SLS rocket and SpaceX’s Starship are integral to NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon’s surface for the first time in half a century.

New York CNN —A nurses strike at two private New York City hospitals has come to an end after 7,000 nurses spent three days on the picket line. The New York State Nurses Association union reached tentative deals with Mount Sinai Health System and Montefiore Health System. But the union said the tentative deal will help put more nurses to work and allow patients to receive better care. The union representing the nurses had approved an offer of 19% pay hikes at other New York hospitals, avoiding a strike with tens of thousands of other nurses. But the nurses at the two hospitals that went on strike said the pay raises weren’t enough to solve staffing shortages.

Parafin, launched in 2020, works with so-called platform partners, or companies that other small businesses sell their products through. All the cofounders knew was that they wanted to build technology that would help small businesses. And they may not get their first contract payment from the government for as long as 120 days," Reed, the startup's CEO, told Insider. Helping small businesses manage their taxesComplYant's founder Shiloh Jackson wants to help people be present in their bookkeeping. HoneyBookWhile countless small businesses have been harmed by the pandemic, self-employment and entrepreneurship have found ways to blossom as Americans started new ventures.

☆ Capella Space raises $60 million from fund run by billionaire entertainment exec Thomas Tull
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

San Francisco-based satellite imagery specialist Capella Space raised $60 million in fresh capital, the company announced on Tuesday. Capella raised the equity from the U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, a recently established private investment vehicle of billionaire Thomas Tull. Capella is the fund's first space investment, Tull told CNBC. The latest raise brings Capella to about $250 million in total equity and debt financing since its founding in 2016.

☆ Twitter keeps confusing rockets for intimate content because of the platform's reliance on machine learning tools, an ex-employee says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter flagged rocket videos from some news accounts as "intimate" and suspended their accounts. The confusion resulted in several Twitter accounts posting about rocket launches getting suspended from the platform. A Twitter account can be suspended when the tools are 95% certain that the post has broken the platform's rules, the former Twitter content moderator added. Similarly, Starbase Watcher said its account was suspended because Twitter claimed that one of its tweets contained intimate content. Previously, an astronomer was locked out of her Twitter account for months after a video of a meteor she posted was flagged as "intimate content," per the BBC.

☆ Walter Cunningham, last surviving Apollo 7 astronaut, dies at 90
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Walter Cunningham, the last surviving astronaut from the first successful crewed space mission in NASA’s Apollo program, died Tuesday in Houston. It was NASA’s first crewed space mission since the deaths of the three Apollo 1 astronauts in a launch pad fire Jan. 27, 1967. “We never even knew that there were astronauts when I was growing up,” Cunningham told The Spokesman-Review. After retiring from NASA in 1971, Cunningham worked in engineering, business and investing, and became a public speaker and radio host. Although Cunningham never crewed another space mission after Apollo 7, he remained a proponent of space exploration.

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