Baltic
Dry Index. 3205 -17
Brent Crude 97.06
Spot Gold 4502 Spot Silver 75.18
US 2 Year Yield 4.05 unch.
US Federal Debt. 39.202 trillion
US GDP 32.178 trillion.
Some people make things happen, some watch while things happen, and some wonder what happened?
Anon.
In the stock casinos, “damn the torpedoes,
full speed ahead.” Bubble on like it’s 2019
1929 again as easy money meets FOMO, Fear Of Missing Out.
That it ends badly is a given, but when? Why?
I suspect October, the favoured crash month, assuming Trump’s six day war doesn’t crash the global economy sooner.
Look away from the rising oil price now.
Japan’s Nikkei hits record high as Asia markets
rise amid Middle East concerns
Published Tue, Jun 2 2026 7:51 PM EDT
Asia-Pacific markets opened broadly higher
Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 hitting a record high, as investors appeared
to look past uncertainty over U.S.-Iran negotiations aimed at ending the Middle
East conflict.
Tensions have escalated between Washington
and Tehran, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying on Tuesday
that Iran has mined “large segments” of the Strait of Hormuz.
“They’re firing on commercial ships and
they’ve mined large segments of Hormuz — international waters,” Rubio told the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This marks his first appearance before
Congress since the Iran war on Feb. 28.
A White House official told CNBC that the
Pentagon has destroyed numerous mines and over 40 minelaying vessels.
The Strait of Hormuz is a critical
waterway, particularly for the energy market globally — around 20% of the
world’s oil supplies passed through the strait before the war.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 extended early
gains to rise 2.94%, while the Topix added 2.14%.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 was 1.52% higher,
while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost
1.73%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.82%
even as the country reported GDP growth of 2.5% year on year for the first
three months this year, missing economists’ expectations of 2.6%. Growth was
pressured by weaker household spending, lower government consumption, as well
as impact from severe weather disruption to the mining industry.
India’s Nifty 50 fell 0.78%, while
the BSE Sensex slipped 0.85%.
South Korea’s markets were closed for a
holiday.
The West Texas Intermediate futures
for June were 1.00% higher at $94.70 per barrel as of 11:45 p.m. ET. Brent crude futures for
July gained 0.92% at $96.88 per barrel.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were
trading around the flatline, as were futures tied to the Dow Jones
Industrial Average
During Tuesday’s regular session, the
broad-based S&P 500 rose
0.13% to end above 7,600 for the first time ever, while the Dow added 228.91 points, or
0.45%. The Nasdaq Composite eked
out a gain of 0.03%.
Asia
markets today: Nikkei, Kospi, Hang Seng, Sensex, Iran, oil
U.S., Iran intensify attacks as ceasefire frays,
peace talks stall
Published Tue, Jun 2 2026 8:50 PM EDT
U.S. Central Command said Tuesday that it had defeated multiple Iranian
ballistic missiles and drones and launched defensive strikes in response to
“attempted attacks” by Iran, the latest in a cycle of attacks that has further
threatened a fragile ceasefire.
Iran had launched several ballistic
missiles toward regional neighbors, though none hit their intended targets,
according to a statement from CENTCOM. Two Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait
fell short or broke apart en route, and three missiles launched at Bahrain were
immediately intercepted by U.S. and Bahrain air defense forces, it said.
The U.S. also shot down three one-way
attack drones launched by Iran toward civilian mariners that were transiting
regional waters, according to the statement. American forces also conducted
self-defense strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm
Island.
Three months in, the regional conflict has
hardened into a stalemate as the U.S. and Iran have repeatedly failed to turn a
fragile ceasefire into a lasting peace deal.
Iran is reportedly
reviewing an agreement proposed by the Trump administration to pause
the war but has not communicated with Washington for a few days, Iranian media
reported on Tuesday, while U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiations were
ongoing.
Tensions on the ground have escalated in
recent weeks. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps has attacked the U.S. Fifth
Fleet headquarters and an airbase and helicopters in the region using
missiles and drones, in response to what the IRGC described as a U.S. attack
on an a communications tower south of Qeshm Island, Reuters reported on
Wednesday, citing Iranian media.
IRGC’s navy also targeted a vessel it
identified as Panaya with missiles in response to what it said was a U.S. attack
on an Iranian tanker near the Strait of Hormuz with a projectile that damaged
the engine room, according to Reuters.
Governments in the Gulf region reported
drone attacks on Wednesday, with Kuwait’s air defenses confronting “hostile
missile and drone attacks” while the country urged citizens to adhere to
the security and safety instructions in place.
Bahrain’s interior ministry also sounded
warning sirens urging residents to seek shelter.
Asian markets traded higher on Wednesday,
tracking gains on Wall Street with the major averages notching fresh record
closes overnight. Japan’s Nikkei 225 hit
a record high, signaling that investors have looked past the geopolitical
uncertainty.
“It’s hard to gauge when [the conflict and
negotiations] may finally come to an end,” Rick Gardner, chief investment
officer at RGA Investments, said on CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on
Wednesday. He expects markets to oscillate between conflict-related negative
shock and resilient corporate earnings.
“You’ve got a two-edged sword there,”
Gardner said, adding that investors who step back from markets over
geopolitical uncertainty risk being “on the wrong side of the trade,” pointing
to strong earnings and guidance as reasons to stay in.
U.S.,
Iran intensify attacks as ceasefire frays, peace talks stall
Gold overtakes US bonds as world’s favourite
investment
Escalating fears over Trump’s wars and
tariffs push central banks to dump Treasuries
Published 02 June 2026 12:19pm BST
Gold has overtaken US bonds to become
central banks’ favourite investment, as Donald Trump rattles faith in America’s
political stability and public finances.
The share of gold in central banks’
official holdings of foreign currencies climbed to 27pc last year, surpassing
US Treasuries at 22pc, according to a report from the European Central Bank
(ECB).
Gold’s
soaring price is the main reason for its newfound dominance of central
banks’ foreign reserves. The cost of a troy ounce rose by 65pc last year,
finishing 2025 at a near-record $4,322 (£3,209).
But the ECB said central banks were also
using gold to shore up their balance sheets against the headwinds of
“geopolitics” – often used as code for Mr Trump’s tariffs, wars and territorial
threats.
The bank cited a survey from late 2025 in
which central banks said “geopolitics” was the third-biggest risk they faced,
behind only “cybersecurity” and “other cyber incidents”. Three-quarters of
central banks said geopolitical risk had increased last year.
In a fresh survey from April, a month
after the US and Israel attacked Iran, 70pc of central banks said geopolitics
was now the most significant risk they faced this year.
A third of central banks also said
geopolitics would be the most important factor guiding the management of their
foreign-currency reserves over the next five years.
Gold is traditionally viewed as a haven
when markets or politics are stormy. But the ECB noted several disadvantages:
its price is volatile, it is expensive to store and it cannot respond as
quickly to shifts in demand.
This has traditionally led central banks
to favour US bonds and other dollar-denominated investments, which are highly
liquid and held in the world’s most widely used currency.
However, central banks have grown more
cautious as Mr Trump has pursued
unpredictable policy on the world stage and piled on more debt.
The US government’s debt is growing faster
than demand for its bonds and faster than the American economy. The debt-to-GDP
ratio has risen from just over 100pc in the 2010s to more than 120pc today.
More
Gold
overtakes US bonds as world’s favourite investment
Next, what Netanyahu’s desperation to cling
for office has wrought. Sadly, all too predictably, driving wrong antisemitism
worldwide. Who could have known?
Trump outburst reflects Israel’s sinking
popularity in American eyes
2 June 2026
When details were leaked about the latest
phone call between Donald Trump and Benjamin
Netanyahu, the headlines focused on the wave of profanities from the US
president.
“What the f--- are you doing?” shouted Mr
Trump in reference to the Israeli prime minister’s continued bombing of
Lebanon. “You’re f---ing crazy. You’d
be in prison if it weren’t for me.”
It is strong stuff, revealing genuine
anger, but it is not the first time an American president has lost his patience
with the aggressive brinkmanship of Mr Netanyahu.
Much more troubling for the Jewish state
are the words that followed: “Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel
because of this.”
Mr Trump, like many populist leaders,
finds his way by testing boundaries. He throws up insults until he finds one
that bites, and then he mines it for everything it is worth.
For many non-Israeli Jews and others
around the world who support the existence of a democratic Jewish state, the
words “everybody hates Israel” are chilling. It is not just because they
capture some truth, but because the politics they open up play on an ancient
and contagious hate.
Research by the Pew Research Center, a
think tank based in Washington DC, found last year that across 24 countries it
surveyed, 62 per cent of people had negative views of the country, against 29
per cent who viewed it positively.
More
Trump outburst
reflects Israel’s sinking popularity in American eyes
In food supply news, Trump’s supply chain
disruptions continue to drive food price inflation.
Rising fertilizer costs drive downturn in
Australian wheat production
Source: Xinhua| 2026-06-02 15:34:15
CANBERRA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Australia's
annual wheat harvest is set to fall by 26 percent year-on-year as a result of
rising fertilizer prices driven by the conflict in the Middle East, according
to a government report.
The agricultural commodities report
published by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and
Sciences (ABARES) on Tuesday said that national wheat production is forecast to
fall to 26.7 million tonnes in 2026-27, down 26 percent from 2025-26 and 8
percent below the 10-year average.
A separate crop report also published by
the ABARES on Tuesday said that the total area planted to wheat is forecast to
fall by 12 percent to 10.9 million hectares in 2026-27, the smallest area since
2019-20.
Overall, it said that Australian winter
crop production is forecast to fall by 21 percent year-on-year to 54.5 million
tonnes.
The commodities report said that many
growers are expected to leave plowed land unplanted due to increases in fuel
and fertilizer prices as well as dry conditions and a below-average national
winter rainfall outlook.
"The impact of Middle East conflict
is significant for Australian agriculture because the sector is export-oriented
and farming systems use imports of fuel, fertilizer, chemicals, and packaging
as inputs," the report said.
According to the ABARES, Australian grain
and oilseed export prices have risen by around 20 percent since the conflict in
the Middle East began, but domestic prices for urea have risen by more than 80
percent in the same period.
As a result of the declining winter crop
production, the bureau is forecasting that the total value of Australia's
agricultural output will fall by 5 percent to 98.3 billion Australian dollars
(70.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2026-27.
Agricultural export value is expected to
fall by 9 percent to 74.8 billion Australian dollars (53.6 billion U.S.
dollars), the report said. ■
Rising fertilizer
costs drive downturn in Australian wheat production-Xinhua
In the USA, approx. 6 minutes.
Ag's Headlines: Historic Wheat Losses
Mount While FTC Targets Fertilizer Industry
In other news, China learning to live without
Nvidia. The world transitioning from Trump’s USA towards China.
CNBC’s The China Connection newsletter: China
learns to build without Nvidia
Published Mon, Jun 1 2026 7:00 PM EDT
Hi, this is Evelyn, writing to you from
Beijing. Welcome to the latest edition of The China Connection — a succinct
snapshot of what I’m seeing and hearing from local businesses.
China’s tech self-sufficiency push is
rapidly becoming a reality as companies focus on business questions that run
deeper than geopolitics. What does that mean for Nvidia?
The big story
Robovan startup Zelostech plans to use
multiple chip suppliers from China and elsewhere, over the next year or two,
instead of relying only on Nvidia for its self-driving systems,
the company told CNBC.
A major factor is cost, said Shi Yunjian,
director of finance and investment. Using China-made chips, for example, would
cost far less than the two Nvidia Orin chipsets currently used in each vehicle,
he said.
That’s a big deal because scale is
becoming a competitive advantage. The more autonomous vehicles can deploy, the
more operating data they can collect and the easier it becomes to convince
regulators that the technology is ready for wider use.
Zelostech claims it already has more than 25,000 vehicles operating in
over 20 countries, with plans to expand rapidly. These don’t carry people, and
many are smaller than a mail truck. Most operate in mainland China, mostly for
logistics companies delivering packages.
By comparison, Alphabet-backed Waymo has just
under 4,000 vehicles on
the road, while Chinese rivals Baidu, WeRide and Pony.ai have yet to deploy
fleets at a similar scale.
Beyond Nvidia
Zelostech is hardly alone in pursuing
Nvidia alternatives.
Waymo uses
custom chips,
while Chinese electric car giant BYD last week joined Nio and Xpeng in revealing their own
semiconductors for
driver-assist systems.
This year, Nio said it’s planning a
fivefold increase in spending on computing power. When I asked whether that
included Nvidia, CEO William Li said the company was no longer buying chips but
renting compute power powered by a variety of processors.
A vehicle Xpeng co-developed with
Volkswagen is also using the Chinese company’s “Turing chip,” while the German
automaker has partnered with China’s Horizon Robotics to develop
driver-assist systems in China — without Nvidia.
Nvidia’s driver-assist chips are not
subject to the same U.S. export restrictions that apply to the more advanced
semiconductors used to train and run AI models.
Yet even after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joined U.S.
President Donald Trump on his trip to Beijing in May, it’s clear China is not
eager to let more Nvidia chips in.
The shift extends beyond vehicles. Chinese
AI developers have increasingly optimized their models to run on homegrown
hardware, rather than Nvidia’s widely used CUDA ecosystem.
The latest MiniMax and Kimi models, along
with DeepSeek’s V4, are compatible with local Chinese semiconductors.
“We believe the pivot to domestic chips
will accelerate over 2026E-28E,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a May 5 report.
They pointed out that DeepSeek V4 works with eight China-made chips, including
those from Huawei and Alibaba’s T-head chip
unit.
More
China learns to
build without Nvidia
Every world leader who has visited China in 2026
in one chart
China has hosted 26 leaders from 23
countries this year, underscoring its growing diplomatic and economic
influence.
2 Jun 2026
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is
the latest senior official in a steady stream of world leaders visiting China
this year.
During her three-day trip this week,
Cooper is expected to meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and Vice President
Han Zheng in Beijing before travelling to the southern tech hub of Shenzhen for
a programme focused on science and technology.
According to an Al Jazeera tally, Cooper
is the 26th foreign leader or senior official to visit China this year. The
list includes presidents, prime ministers, chancellors, crown princes and
foreign ministers from 23 countries.
In all, leaders from Ireland, South Korea,
Canada, Finland, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, Germany, Turkmenistan, Pakistan,
Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Vietnam, Mozambique, Iran, Tajikistan,
the United States, Seychelles, Moldova, Singapore, Serbia, Brazil, and Laos
have travelled to China this year.
More
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians.
Inflation
hits 3.2% in the euro zone as Iran war pushes energy costs higher
Published
Tue, Jun 2 2026 5:03 AM EDT
Euro
zone inflation rose to an estimated 3.2% in May, driven by double-digit energy
price growth, official data showed on Tuesday.
The
print, which was in line with forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists, is
expected to lock in expectations of an interest rate hike at next week’s
European Central Bank meeting.
Energy
costs represented the highest annual rate of inflation in May, according to the
flash data, with prices rising by 10.9% — a slight rise from the euro zone’s
10.8% energy price growth recorded the previous month.
Services
inflation rose to 3.5% from 3% in April, while food, alcohol and tobacco prices
cooled to 2% from 2.4% the previous month.
Inflation
rates also varied drastically between individual markets. Germany, Europe’s
biggest economy, saw annual inflation fall to 2.7% in May from 2.9% in April.
But Greece and Lithuania’s annual inflation rates rose above 5% last month. In
France, annual inflation rose from 2.5% in April to 2.8% in May.
Tuesday’s
print showed inflation in Europe is continuing to rise above the European
Central Bank’s 2% target as oil and gas prices remain elevated in the wake of
the U.S.-Iran war.
Inflation
in the euro zone jumped to 3%
in April, up from 2.6% in March. Prior to the outbreak of the conflict in Iran,
inflation in the euro area had dipped below the 2% threshold.
Europe
is particularly vulnerable to energy shocks as a major net energy importer.
Markets
are currently pricing in a 94% chance of the ECB hiking its key interest rate
by 25 basis points at its meeting later this month, according to LSEG data.
Following
the data release, the euro was flat
against the dollar at around $1.164. The yield on Germany’s 10-year bund, broadly seen as
a benchmark for the euro zone, fell by 6 basis points.
Carsten
Brzeski, global head of macro at ING, said in a note on Tuesday morning that
the May inflation data paves the way for an ECB rate hike next week.
“A
week ahead of the next ECB meeting, this is the expected uptick in inflation
that will motivate the central bank to decide on an ‘insurance’ hike,” he said.
Brzeski
added that the Iran war-induced energy shock had “become more permanent,” but
noted that oil prices remain lower than levels forecast by many market watchers
under a more adverse scenario regarding the length of the war.
“Nevertheless,
for inflation in the eurozone, the only way is currently up,” he said. “Not a
sharp up but a rather moderate and gradual lift. While knock-on effects from
higher energy prices on other prices, like transportation and food, will be
hard to avoid, the latest survey-based inflation expectations have come down a
bit.”
Inflation hits
3.2% in the euro zone as energy costs climb higher
S.
Korea's consumer price inflation hits 26-month high in May
Source:
Xinhua| 2026-06-02 15:22:15
SEOUL,
June 2 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's consumer price inflation hit a 26-month high
due to surging oil product prices driven by tensions in the Middle East,
statistical ministry data showed Tuesday.
The
consumer price index (CPI) shot up 3.1 percent in May from a year earlier,
marking the fastest gain since March 2024, according to the Ministry of Data
and Statistics.
Headline
inflation has stayed above the central bank's mid-term inflation target of 2
percent for nine straight months since September 2025.
Prices
for industrial products, including oil products and processed food, spiked 4.2
percent in May compared to the same month last year, up from 3.8 percent in the
previous month.
Prices
for oil products surged 24.2 percent in May, pushing overall inflation up by
0.92 percentage points. This marked the fastest increase in nearly four years,
since July 2022.
Prices
for gasoline and diesel jumped 23.1 percent and 33.3 percent, respectively,
while computer prices went up 19.0 percent amid higher semiconductor prices.
Prices
for agricultural, livestock and fishery products climbed 2.2 percent in May
from a year earlier, marking the first rebound in three months.
Prices
for electricity, natural gas and tap water were up 0.1 percent in May on a
yearly basis.
City
gas charge, heating cost and waterworks fee added in single digits, while
electricity bills dipped 0.4 percent.
Service
prices surged 2.8 percent in the month, lifting headline inflation by 1.56
percentage points, marking the fastest increase since December 2023.
Driven
by a surge in fuel surcharges amid rising oil prices, international airfares
jumped 33.5 percent last month, marking the steepest increase since records
began in 1995.
The
livelihood items index, which gauges prices for daily necessities, climbed 3.3
percent, while the fresh food index, which measures prices for fish, shellfish,
fruit and vegetables, declined 1.4 percent.
Demand-side
inflationary pressure lingered. Core consumer price index, which excludes
volatile agricultural and oil products, appreciated 2.5 percent.
The
OECD-method core price index, excluding volatile energy and food costs, picked
up 2.5 percent in the cited month. ■
S. Korea's
consumer price inflation hits 26-month high in May-Xinhua
Trump administration proposes 25% tariff on Brazilian goods over unfair
trade practices
Published Tue, Jun 2 2026 12:13 AM EDT
The Office of the United States Trade
Representative has proposed 25% tariffs on Brazilian goods under Section 301,
determining that the South American nation had engaged in practices that “are
unreasonable and burden or restrict U.S. commerce.”
Some of these practices also include
anti-corruption enforcement, intellectual property protection, ethanol market
access, and illegal deforestation, according to the release from the U.S. Trade Representative.
U.S Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that
the investigation under Section 301 was launched at the direction of U.S.
President Donald Trump.
While Trump has had “several constructive meetings”
with Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the two sides continue to
have substantial differences in resolving the issues identified in this
investigation, Greer said.
The USTR will hold a hearing about the proposed
action on July 6.
Section 301 is designed to address unfair foreign
practices affecting U.S. commerce, and allows the U.S. president to impose
tariffs if an investigation finds that the acts are unreasonable or
discriminatory.
Back in July 2025, Brazil was hit with
50% tariff by Trump, partly in retaliation for the
ongoing prosecution of the country’s former President Jair Bolsonaro.
However, those duties were struck
down by the U.S. Supreme Court in February,
leaving Washington able to only impose a 10% global tariff on exports to the
U.S.
Separately, the White House announced an adjustment to tariffs on certain steel, aluminum and copper imports.
Levies on agricultural equipment, like combines and harvesters will be dropped
to 15% from 25%, and the scope of equipment qualifying for the 15% tariff will
also be expanded.
Capital equipment that include at least 85% of U.S.
steel and aluminum by weight will also qualify for a 10% duty rate, down from
the current 95%.
Trump
administration proposes 25% tariff on Brazilian goods over unfair trade
practices
Technology
Update.
With events happening fast in the
development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this
section Updates as they get reported.
Scientists
listen to the ‘heart’ of our Sun – and find mysterious behaviour
Andrew
Griffin Tue, 2 June 2026 at 4:10 am BST
The Sun is behaving in mysterious and unexpected ways,
scientists have found after listening to its “heart”.
A new study suggests that something has changed about
the Sun’s internal rhythm over the
past 40 years, the researchers say. That rhythm decides space weather than can affect life on Earth, and scientists say
that urgent study is required to understand what is happening to our star.
The Sun is known to change on 11-year cycles, from
active to less active times. Through the busier parts of those cycles, the Sun
is more likely to throw out solar flares and ejections of particles that can
lead to potentially dangerous solar storms.
The new research came after scientists listened to the
tiny sound waves that are inside the Sun. That allows them to better understand
the changes on the Sun’s interior, and what they might mean for its cycles and
behaviour.
They found that the Sun appears to be entering a
“different mode of behaviour”. In addition to the usual 11-year tempo, there
are more long term changes in its structure that could alter how the Sun works.
The study suggests that solar magnetic activity is
being pushed into a layer just below the visible surface of the Sun, and that
layer is becoming increasingly shallow.
"The Sun has its own 'active biorhythm' creating
rising and falling magnetic activity that shapes space weather. However, traditional surface measures don't capture
the full story – that the Sun may be entering a different mode of behaviour
unfolding over decades,” said Bill Chaplin, from the University of Birmingham,
who was the lead author on the new study.
"We have uncovered evidence of systematic changes
in the solar activity cycle. Crucially, magnetic activity is becoming more
tightly confined near the surface with each cycle. This is the first such
discovery and would have been impossible without the long BiSON
observations."
The researchers suggest that more work is required to
better understand the Sun’s current cycle and whatever changes inside might be
powering and altering it.
"We discovered that the relationship between
internal solar oscillations and surface activity has evolved over the past few
cycles,” said Sarbani Basu, from Yale University.
"This trend cannot be explained simply by weaker
magnetic fields. Instead, it indicates a structural reorganisation of how the
Sun's magnetic activity is stored beneath the surface."
Scientists listen
to the ‘heart’ of our Sun – and find mysterious behaviour - Yahoo News UK
Blue Origin launchpad damaged in rocket explosion may not be
restored until 2028, NASA’s Isaacman says
Published Mon, Jun 1 2026 7:48 PM EDT
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on
Monday told CNBC that it will “take some serious time” to restore the launchpad
damaged last week by a Blue Origin rocket
explosion.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin was conducting a hot-fire test of its
massive New Glenn rocket on Thursday at a Space Force launch facility in Cape
Canaveral, Florida, when the rocket erupted into a fireball. Bezos confirmed
that all Blue Origin personnel were safe following the incident, and pledged to
rebuild, while calling it a “very rough day.”
A 2028 timeframe is “within the realm” of a possible launchpad
recovery, Isaacman said in an interview with CNBC’s Morgan Brennan at the CEO
Council Summit.
“We’re all getting organized generally around the idea that we
certainly want to see Blue Origin be very successful,” Isaacman said. “So
recovering, getting the pad recovered, providing subject matter expertise, root
cause analysis for sure. Let’s figure out what’s broken, and then we got to
keep moving forward.”
Isaacman, Bezos and Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp toured the
launchpad and addressed the space startup’s employees on Friday. Limp wrote in
a Saturday post on X that
Blue Origin has since regained some access to launchpad and developed a plan
for rebuilding.
NASA has several contracts with Blue Origin as part of the space
agency’s Artemis program, an effort to return American astronauts to the Moon’s
surface by 2028. It tapped Blue Origin to launch an uncrewed Blue Moon lander,
known as MK1, atop New Glenn later this year.
Getting the lander to the moon will require a rocket that can
carry a significant amount of mass, Isaacman said. That will likely put NASA in
“Falcon Heavy land,” he said, referring to the super heavy-lift rocket
developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“In terms of heavy lift, you know, real heavy lift, you’ve got
SpaceX and Blue Origin, and obviously one of them is down a pad right now,”
Isaacman said.
New Glenn was designed by Blue Origin to compete with SpaceX’s
Falcon 9 rocket, along with United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan heavy-lift rocket.
Blue Origin only has one New Glenn launchpad, making Thursday’s
explosion an especially devastating mishap. It plans to operate a New Glenn
launchpad out of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, but that pad
remains in development.
“We’ve got a lot of data, in fact, it was one of the first things
my team made available, is, hey, across history of human space flight, of every
launch pad we’ve built, every launch pad we ever had to rebuild, here’s the
timelines,” Isaacman said. “Even if you’re moving at, you know, a pretty quick
pace, that’s going to take some serious time.”
The incident also impacts Blue Origin’s other customers,
including Amazon. Blue
Origin was set to ferry 48 satellites for Amazon’s nascent Leo
internet-from-space venture this week, as part of several upcoming missions.
Amazon, which Bezos founded in 1994, has a pending deadline by the
Federal Communications Commission to deploy about half of its constellation by
next month. It’s also working to bring its Leo service online for commercial
customers later this year, which aims to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink.
AST SpaceMobile,
which is building a direct-to-device satellite system, also relies on Blue
Origin for some rocket launches. The stock closed down more than 6% on Monday,
after falling almost 17% on Friday.
Blue Origin
launchpad may not be restored until 2028: NASA's Isaacman
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts
agree, is by accident. That’s where we come in: we’re computer professionals.
We cause accidents.
Anon.
