The explosion of an unmanned rocket from Orbital Sciences late Tuesday has investors running for the exits.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The rocket exploded shortly after it launched off the coast of Virginia Tuesday evening. Orbital Sciences (ORB) said in a statement that it will work closely with NASA and other government agencies to determine the cause of the accident.
Orbital's Antares rocket was carrying supplies to the International Space Station. Nobody was hurt as a result of the explosion.
The "mishap" -- as Orbital refers to it -- comes at a critical time for the company. Orbital was awarded a $1.9 billion contract from NASA in December 2008 to conduct eight cargo resupply missions to the space station. This was the company's third flight.
NASA also awarded a similar contract in December 2008 to SpaceX, the rocket company founded by lon Musk, CEo of Tesla (TSLA) and also chairman of SolarCity (SCTY).
Musk criticized Orbital in a 2012 interview with Wired, saying that "their rocket honestly sounds like the punch line to a joke. It uses Russian rocket engines that were made in the '60s." Musk tweeted Tuesday evening that he was "sorry to hear about the @OrbitalSciences launch. Hope they recover soon."
Competition in the corporate space race is heating up. SpaceX and Boeing (BA) have both won multi-billion dollar contracts to make "space taxis" to transport astronauts to the space station. Boeing's spacecraft will launch from a rocket jointly developed by Boeing and fellow defense/aerospace giant Lockheed Martin (LMT).
So it's understandable why Orbital Sciences investors are nervous.
The NASA contract lasts only through the end of 2016. There is no indication as of yet that Tuesday's accident changes anything. But when the original contract was signed, NASA said that the value of the contract could go as high as $3.1 billion based on "production milestones."
Prior to Tuesday, Orbital's stock had been a big winner on Wall Street. The stock was up 30% this year. The company reported earnings earlier this month that easily topped Wall Street's expectations.
The company also has big expansion plans ... and the market might be worried about how the Antares explosion will impact that. Orbital has already agreed to merge with the aerospace and defense business of ammunition manufacturer Alliant Techsystems (ATK). Shareholders of both companies are set to vote on whether to approve the deal in December.
First Published: October 29, 2014: 10:00 AM ET
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Exploding rocket company's stock plunges
Dengan url
http://kasiatbuatsehat.blogspot.com/2014/10/exploding-rocket-companys-stock-plunges.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Exploding rocket company's stock plunges
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Exploding rocket company's stock plunges
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar