Virgin Orbit is assembling a fleet of rocket-launching 747 jets, the company announced, ordering two new modified cargo airframes that CEO Dan Hart says “unleashes us in a few ways.”
The added jets open “up all sorts of possibilities for supporting different customers in different places,” Hart said.
Virgin Orbit expects to take delivery of the first of the two new planes next year.

The modified 737 aircraft “Cosmic Girl” lifts off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California carrying a LauncherOne rocket on June 30, 2021.
Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit is assembling a fleet of modified 747 jets, the company announced Tuesday, ordering two new modified cargo airframes to help launch more rockets into space.
The company is acquiring the two additional airframes through L3Harris, which will modify the jets to carry and launch Virgin Orbit’s rockets. Virgin expects to take delivery of the first of the planes next year.

Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said the delivery timing of the second plane will be “driven more by market demand” for launches. The deal “unleashes us in a few ways,” he said. “It eliminates one of the key chokepoints that we have in the system,” Hart told CNBC.
It also will help the company keep launches going in case one of their aircraft is undergoing maintenance, which will open up “all sorts of possibilities for supporting different customers in different places,” he added.
Virgin Orbit has a single aircraft, a customized Boeing 747-400 called “Cosmic Girl,” which has flown four missions of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket to date. Through a method known as air launch, the company’s aircraft carries its rockets to about 45,000 feet of altitude and drops them just before they fire their engines and accelerate into space — a method the company touts as more flexible than ground-based systems.
Hart declined to specify the financial details of the deal with L3Harris, but noted that the upfront cost of a 747 airframe is in the “single digit millions.”
Virgin Orbit’s new 747s will also feature an improved layout, with L3Harris modifying the aircraft to carry up to two LauncherOne rockets, as well as all of the company’s ground support equipment, to a launch site.

“The ability to deploy two rockets and all the ground equipment in one airplane, fly somewhere, set it up, and all of a sudden you’ve got a launch base somewhere is a pretty unique,” Hart said. “It adds a certain level of unpredictability for the national security community [and] it’s better economics for spaceports.”
Virgin Orbit went public via a SPAC in December. The company’s stock has fallen about 44% from its debut as of Monday’s close at $4.51 a share.

First U.K. launch coming up

Virgin Orbit’s modified 747 jet “Cosmic Girl” releases the company’s LauncherOne rocket for a mission on January 13, 2022.
Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit’s next scheduled mission is for the Pentagon. It will carry seven government satellites, planned for no earlier than June 29.
Next, the company expects to fly its first international mission, launching from Cornwall in the United Kingdom. To prepare for that mission, which is planned for the third quarter of the year, Hart said the company will do a full wet dress rehearsal of the Cornwall rocket at the company’s current base of operations at Mojave Air and Space Port in California, before flying Cosmic Girl and shipping out its equipment to the U.K.
Adding more aircraft gives Virgin Orbit key flexibility to serve international demand. Outside the U.S., the company currently has launch agreements with the U.K., Japan and Brazil, as well as memorandums of understanding with Poland and Oman.
“We’re having discussions with on the order of a half a dozen other countries as well,” Hart said.
Virgin Orbit also is looking at governments owning the 747 aircraft themselves, with the company providing launch services for the countries. “That’s the best economics because the logistics tail is pretty simple, and that’s what we’re going for,” Hart said.

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Democrats push FDA to regulate toxic metals in baby food after investigation finds high levels.
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Top Democrats are pushing the FDA to regulate toxic metals in baby food after a congressional investigation discovered the presence of metals like arsenic, lead and cadmium at levels far higher than those allowed in bottled water and other products.
Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., as well as Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., told CNBC that they are urging the regulatory agency to place limits on toxic heavy metal content in baby food.

The Food and Drug Administration does not currently set limits on heavy metals for baby foods, specifically, except for arsenic in rice cereal. The agency does regulate other toxins in consumer products such as lead, arsenic and cadmium in bottled water.
The four Democrats said Thursday they have drafted legislation that would strengthen regulations for baby food safety and have sent it to FDA staff for technical review. But the lawmakers want the FDA to use their existing regulatory authority to take immediate action.
“Through our legislation and FDA regulatory action, we will ensure that the baby foods that reach the market are safe and that our children are safe,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement. “I’m proud to partner with my colleagues along with the FDA, stakeholders, and health experts across the country in developing comprehensive reforms.”
An FDA spokeswoman said the agency takes the exposure of toxic metals in foods “extremely seriously” and that the agency is reviewing the findings of the congressional investigation. She added that the “FDA does not comment on whether it has received requests for technical assistance regarding legislation, but we would look forward to working with Congress on this issue.”

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., during the House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing titled Protecting the Timely Delivery of Mail, Medicine, and Mail-in Ballots, in Rayburn House Office Building on Monday, August 24, 2020.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

A subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform chaired by Krishnamoorthi released the findings of its 15-month investigation in February. It used data from four companies — Nurture, Hain Celestial Group, Beech-Nut Nutrition and Gerber, a unit of Nestle — that responded to the subcommittee’s requests for information about testing policies and test results regarding their products.

The investigation revealed that “baby food companies were not looking out for parents and young kids the way that we all expected — instead, they were knowingly selling us tainted products,” Krishnamoorthi said.
Hain said at the time that the investigation did “not reflect our current practices,” adding that the company’s internal standards “meet or exceed the current federal guidelines.”
Gemma Hart, a spokeswoman for Nurture, told The New York Times at the time that their products were safe and that the metals were present only in “trace amounts.” Beech-Nut said Thursday that the company “is committed to continually refining its internal standards and testing processes as technology and knowledge develops.” Dana Stambaugh, a spokeswoman for Gerber, said the company takes steps to minimize metals in its products.
Three other companies that sell baby food — Walmart, Sprout Organic Foods and Campbell Soup — did not provide all of the requested information. At the time of the investigation’s release, Campbell said its products were safe and cited the lack of FDA standards for heavy metals in baby food.
A Walmart representative told Reuters at the time that it requires private label product suppliers to follow its own specifications, “which for baby and toddler food means the levels must meet or fall below the limits established by the FDA.”
Sprout did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
“Like parents all across America, I was horrified to learn that trusted baby food brands knowingly sell products containing high levels of toxic lead, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium,” Rep. Cardenas said Thursday. “I urge the FDA to use its existing authorities to take immediate regulatory action.
The investigation acknowledged that heavy metals do occur naturally in some grains and vegetables, but added that the amounts can be increased when manufacturers add other tainted ingredients to baby food. The report said companies rarely test their products for contaminants before sending them to stores.
“It’s unacceptable that despite parents’ best efforts to keep their children safe, some leading baby food manufacturers have put products on the market that expose children to dangerous toxins,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “This legislation will protect children and ensure they get a healthy start by holding manufacturers accountable for removing toxins out of infant and toddler foods.” More

Retail sales are expected to grow between 6% and 8% in 2022, as consumers spend more on services instead of goods and cope with inflation, the National Retail Federation said on Tuesday.
That annual forecast represents a slower pace of growth for retailers than 2021, but it’s higher than the pre-pandemic growth rate.
The trade group delivered its outlook as inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine send food and gas prices higher and raise questions about whether shoppers will pull back on spending

Miami, Florida, Brickell City Centre shopping mall with Apple Store, Chanel and escalators.
Jeff Greenberg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

Retail sales in the U.S. are expected to grow between 6% and 8% this year, as Americans shift more of their spending to restaurants and trips and cope with sticker shock at the grocery store and gas station, the National Retail Federation said on Tuesday.
That would total between $4.86 trillion and $4.95 trillion in retail sales, the trade group said, with some of the sales gains coming from inflation-fueled prices. Those sales numbers exclude automobile dealers, gas and restaurants.

“Consumers do want to spend and do have the ability to spend, but we expect there will be a shift back to services from goods,” the group’s chief economist Jack Kleinhenz said at NRF’s virtual event.
The NRF delivered its annual outlook as inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine send food and gas prices higher and raise questions about whether shoppers will pull back. Retailers are also starting to lap challenging comparisons. A year ago, Americans were receiving stimulus checks from the government and putting those extra dollars toward purchases.
The NRF’s forecast is significantly slower than the 14% annual growth rate in 2021, which was the highest in more than 20 years. Yet the group’s 2022 outlook is above the 10-year, pre-pandemic growth rate of 3.7%.
Kleinhenz said he does not expect inflation to cool until 2023, but said the retail industry should benefit from declining unemployment and increasing wages. He said longer lasting inflation, additional waves of Covid and an escalating crisis in Ukraine could jeopardize the forecast, however.
“Given the recent geopolitical disruptions, we will likely see some resetting of the world economy and these ripples will make their way to the United States,” he said.

In recent weeks, retail leaders from Walmart, Target and Macy’s reported strong holiday-quarter earnings and said customers are still opening up their wallets rather than trading down to smaller packs, private labels and other budget-friendly alternatives. Yet all three companies said value is top of mind.
Walmart CFO Brett Biggs told CNBC in an interview last month that the company’s own studies show customers are paying attention to inflation. Macy’s CFO Adrian Mitchell said last week at an investor conference that the department store is thinking about how best to market itself to lower-income families who may feel squeezed by larger grocery bills.
Retail sales numbers bear that out, too. Sales rose 3.8% in January on a monthly basis, or 13% on a year-over-year basis, according to the Commerce Department. Inflation accounts for some of that increase, as it pushes up prices of food, fuel, cars and more.
Ellen Zentner, chief U.S. economist of Morgan Stanley, said the first quarter is tracking ahead of expectations, but the bank recently cut its full-year forecast as energy prices spike.
She said budget-strapped families are already feeling the pinch.
“The burden on lower-income households has basically quadrupled in terms of what they were spending to fill up their gas tanks last year,” she said at the NRF event.
Joel Prakken, chief U.S. economist and co-head of U.S. economics for IHS Markit, said at the event that the firm’s outlook on the economy and consumer spending is more pessimistic than Morgan Stanley and NRF. He said it anticipates record gas prices and elevated food prices, as the war in Ukraine disrupts the wheat harvest and spring plantings and fertilizer costs spike.
Prior to the Russian invasion, he said retailers had a lot working in their favor: Strong employment growth. Rising wages, especially among low-income earners. And families who socked away money in savings accounts during the pandemic.
“Right now, a lot of that has to be thrown aside to contemplate what’s been happening in Eastern Europe,” he said.

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Penn Entertainment is partnering with Disney’s ESPN to rebrand and relaunch its sportsbook as ESPN Bet.
The move comes as ESPN has been exploring further moves in the sports-betting space in recent years.
Penn is rebranding the Barstool Sportsbook as ESPN Bet, and will be divesting its stock in Barstool Sports.

SportsCenter at ESPN Headquarters.
The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Disney’s ESPN is launching a betting sportsbook, putting the sports entertainment unit deeper into the wagering world.
U.S. gambling company Penn Entertainment said it is partnering with ESPN to rebrand and relaunch its sportsbook as ESPN Bet. It’s the first time ESPN’s brand will be on a sports-betting platform.

ESPN Bet will take over Penn’s Barstool Sportsbook and become ESPN’s exclusive operation. It will launch this fall in the 16 legalized betting states.
ESPN had been looking for a partner in the sports-betting business for sometime. Last fall, former Disney CEO Bob Chapek said that while ESPN will never take bets itself, it wanted to partner with a gambling company.
The deal gives ESPN another revenue stream as cord-cutting weighs on the traditional TV business. Meanwhile, the deal allows Disney to shore up cash as it loses money on its streaming unit and is likely to acquire Comcast’s stake in Hulu early next year.
Disney CEO Bob Iger also recently signaled on CNBC that the company is looking for a strategic partner and is open to offloading its cable TV networks.
The deal, announced Tuesday, gives Penn the exclusive right to the ESPN Bet trademark in the U.S. for 10 years, which may be extended another 10 years if the two come to a mutual agreement.

As part of the deal, Penn will pay ESPN $1.5 billion in cash over the 10-year period. The agreement also grants ESPN about $500 million of warrants to buy approximately 31.8 million Penn common shares that will vest over the same period.
ESPN will also have the option to designate one nonvoting board observer to Penn’s board, or after three years, designate a board member subject to certain regulatory approvals and a minimum ownership threshold.
Penn will be divesting its stock in Barstool Sports to founder David Portnoy. Penn became sole owner of Barstool in February when the company completed its acquisition of Barstool for $388 million.
Through the latest agreement, Penn will have the right to 50% of the gross proceeds that Portnoy receives in any future sale or other monetization of Barstool.
Penn’s stock was up roughly 20% in after-hours trading Tuesday, while Disney was slightly up. Disney and Penn both report earnings on Wednesday.
Penn said in Tuesday’s release the deal will add an estimated $500 million to $1 billion in annual long-term adjusted earnings potential in its interactive segment.
In February, Penn reported that its sports-betting business turned a profit in the final three months of the fiscal year, the first U.S. sports gambling company to do so during that period. Typically it’s harder for a sportsbook to post a profit during the third and fourth quarters because companies spend more on marketing and promotions during the football season.
At the time, Penn had attributed the profitability to its marketing approach and relying on cross-platform promotion from Barstool.
— CNBC’s Alex Sherman contributed to this report.
Correction: Penn Entertainment reported in February that its sports-betting business turned a profit in the final three months of the fiscal year. An earlier version misstated the month. More