By
Bena Ilyas
April 23rd, 2024
NASA Marshall center claimed that they have the employee tested positive for the coronavirus. SPCE stock started falling in the premarket after a good Friday.
Johns Hopkins University says the U.S. already has 3,300 or more contamination cases. Dow and S&P 500 do not show any signs of positive resolve. Nasa, Boeing, Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin have set the limit for their employees, they also cancel public events. The development of important spacecraft hardware is under attack. Possibly, some of the software engineers could have coronavirus, hence – they must stay at home. Meanwhile, the stock of Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE: SPCE) has started to lose its value in the premarket. It is already more than 17% down.
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center will be closed, and the Marshall center in Huntsville reports one case. Also, the second case was reported from the Ames center situated in Silicon Valley. Both stations have ‘Stage 3’ status, which means coronavirus was there (and still maybe). A week ago NASA reported that the Ames center had one man with contamination. However, they took care of the building and other employees. Jody Singer, director at Marshall center, noted:
“More guidance will follow for those who do not have the equipment to work from home or who work in labs or other facilities requiring similar technical equipment that is a fixed asset”
Virgin Galactic (SPCE) Gain Tech, Recognition, Not Profits
During the last months, Virgin Galactic (SPCE) was gaining the price, which is a good sign for a company developing in the times of coronavirus. The price has climbed from $2,75 per share to almost $33 per share since December 2019. Then, the fall made it to $18.44. Despite its stock is a good venture investment tool, the company itself had yet gained no profits. At the time of writing, in the premarket, it is around $12.10.
Right now, Virgin has not sent any of the spacecraft out to the sky darkness. The company only gained small revenue while working as a small contractor for the U.S. government. Also, they made good deals with the officials and received profits for several testing programs, including spaceflights related ones. However, the net loss in 2019 is reaching $211 million, which is not good for the company. Still, their unbeatable will helps the spacecraft to see the stars someday, together with people on board.
Virgin still has around $465 million in the trust account. This money can help the company grow for probably two more years. But if they launch the first spacecraft till June 2020, we could see substantial changes in the price of the stocks.
Virgin Galactic will have to compete with SpaceX and Blue Origin. It is also worth noting that Virgin announced redemption of public warrants. Per the announce:
“Under the terms of the Warrant Agreement, the Company is entitled to redeem all of the outstanding Public Warrants if the last sales price of the Common Stock is at least $18.00 per share on each of twenty trading days within any thirty-day trading period ending on the third trading day before the date on which a notice of redemption is given. At the direction of the Company, the Warrant Agent has delivered a notice of redemption to each of the registered holders of the outstanding Public Warrants.”
Also, the board of directors has decided that all the warrants will be exercised on a cashless basis.
What’s Up With SpaceX?
SpaceX looks like it is working according to the plan. Their CEO Elon Musk wrote an e-mail to staff saying that if they feel ill, they can stay at home, and claimed via Twitter that coronavirus panic is nonsense. The industry that has a size of 400 billion could hardly try asking their workers to do everything from homes. Freelancers do it all the time, as well as programmers, artists and even journalists. But not people who build rockers and stuff.
Many people think they need to go somewhere to work. In reality, they only need their brain and their heart to work, not the special building.
However, complex hardware building, working in research labs, contacting many people, may soon become impossible for SpaceX staff.