Raphael Stevens

A composite image showing a Falcon 9 rocket booster lifting off and a few minutes later landing back near the launchpad.SpaceXThe next SpaceX launch will feature a milestone, as the Pentagon is allowing Elon Musk’s company to send a national security satellite to orbit with a reused rocket for the first time.SpaceX is set to launch the GPS III SV05 satellite for the Space Force on Thursday from Florida, using the Falcon 9 rocket booster that launched the GPS III SV04 satellite last November. The company’s Falcon 9 rockets are partially reusable, as SpaceX regularly lands the boosters – the largest and most expensive part of the rocket – and then launches again.”In preparation for this first time event we’ve worked closely with SpaceX to understand the refurbishment processes and are confident that this rocket is ready for its next flight,” Dr. Walter Lauderdale, deputy mission director of the U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missiles Systems Center, told reporters during a briefing on Monday.The Pentagon awarded SpaceX with five of the six GPS III satellite launch contracts to date, with the GPS III SV02 mission the only one launched by competitor United Launch Alliance – the rocket-building joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Those five launch contracts total $469.8 million and originally did not include the option for SpaceX to reuse its Falcon 9 rockets.As the name suggests, GPS III spacecraft are replacements of the 31 GPS satellites currently operating in orbit.The Space and Missiles Systems Center last year modified the contracts for SpaceX’s next two GPS III satellite launches to allow reuse, a move that the military estimated will save about $64 million.Notably, Space Force required that SpaceX use the same booster to launch SV05 that launched the SV04 satellite. But Dr. Lauderdale said Space and Missiles Systems Center has “no other constraints” for how the company uses the Falcon 9 booster in the future, and highlighted that Space Force is also open to flying national security payloads that launched on boosters from non-military missions.”We continue to work with [SpaceX] and, looking ahead to the SV06 mission next year … we’ll be working with them as to what boosters are available,” said Dr. Lauderdale. “We are certainly open to using other boosters not just ones that have flown [for Space Force].”The landed Falcon 9 rocket booster from SpaceX’s Demo-2 crewed mission returns to Port Canaveral in Florida.SpaceXThe move marks another step forward in the U.S. military embracing SpaceX’s practice of reusing rockets, as the government previously required the company to use new rockets and discard the boosters in the ocean – the traditional practice in the launch industry. Dr. Lauderdale said the Space and Missiles Systems Center has been working on allowing reusable rocket launches for the past five years, setting up new requirements. He noted that the center reviewed over 440 changes to the booster and completed more than 380 verification steps before the launch.”Taken as a whole, our disciplined approach is part of an uncompromising dedication to mission success executed one launch at a time,” Dr. Lauderdale said.Thursday’s launch will be the third of the Space Force’s National Security Space Launch program’s missions to land the rocket, as well.Become a smarter investor with CNBC Pro.Get stock picks, analyst calls, exclusive interviews and access to CNBC TV. Sign up to start a free trial today. More

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne ShotwellJay Westcott / NASASpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell returned to her alma mater on Monday and delivered Northwestern University’s commencement address to the class of 2021.Speaking virtually, Shotwell gave Northwestern’s students an overview of her career, especially focusing on the nearly two decades that she’s worked for Elon Musk’s SpaceX. As one of the company’s first employees, she has been with SpaceX from its early startup days to now, a space company with nearly 10,000 employees and worth $74 billion.”The one accomplishment that we have that I am most proud of is helping to get our country flying astronauts again on American-made rockets and spaceships,” Shotwell said.She gave advice to graduates and also declared that she is “worried about our nation’s children,” saying the U.S. education system is “not preparing our children for their future.””We are not giving all of our children an education that will shape them into resourceful and productive people that our country needs to remain relevant. Every child is a resource to better our future and our future will be driven by technology,” Shotwell said during her address.SpaceX’s Starship rocket production facility in Boca Chica, Texas, as CEO Elon Musk (third from the right) and President Gwynne Shotwell (third from the left) tour.Steve Jurvetson on flickrShotwell received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 1986 and 1988, respectively, from Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering, and currently serves on the university’s board of trustees.Northwestern also awarded Shotwell with an honorary degree.Read Shotwell’s full address:”Hey, Class of 2021, I’m incredibly proud to be your commencement speaker.Thank you, Morty [Schapiro] for inviting me, and thanks to the board and Lanny Martin, its chairman, for allowing me to speak, even though you guys know me for my six years of service on this board, and that this invitation is a tiny bit risky.But it is an honor to follow in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s steps. Last year she brought gravitas to this event, while she honored George Floyd and implored graduates to participate in our democracy.This is a special year to do the Northwestern University commencement. This is my 35th anniversary of my Northwestern University undergraduate commencement, and most importantly, Stephen Colbert, who also graduated from NU – or almost did – in 1986, did this speech exactly 10 years ago, and he predicted that the speaker for 2021 would be, and I quote, ‘a zoo parrot with a mortar board that has been trained to say congratulations.’ So here I am, Gwynne Shotwell, your zoo parrot, for the class of ’21; congratulations to you.Class of ’21, you have achieved something important. All graduations deserve a celebration but you, this class of 2021, have an even greater achievement: You not only survived but succeeded throughout the insanity of 2020 and into this year. You were able to focus and invest in your future during a period of immense suffering.But many of the issues that we face going forward will be different. I think highly dynamic social, political and economic situations are the new normal, and you are now better prepared to succeed in them. You have lived it and not just survived, but succeeded. Feel good about that and carry that new skill with you; I think you will use it.Okay, before I share a few jewels of my life lessons learned, there are a few things you should know about me to help put my remarks in context. I am a mother, a wife, a mechanical engineer, and nerd. We aren’t all nerds, but I’m proud to be one. I’m a longtime SpaceX employee and leader, an active listener, a rancher, of course a wildcat, and an aspiring winemaker. I love my country, even though it is flawed and I’m committed to helping resolve its social injustices. And I am desperate to be a grandmother, but my children aren’t cooperating in my vision, at least yet.My road to Northwestern started in Libertyville, Illinois, which is a small town north of the university – that’s where I grew up. I did very well in elementary and high school academics, and I also worked incredibly hard at having a full social life. I decided to be a mechanical engineer, after my mother took me to a Society of Women Engineers event when I was only 15 or 16. I applied only to Northwestern University School of Engineering. But it wasn’t because it was the best engineering school – I applied because of Northwestern’s richness in other fields. It was ranked among the top, or was the top at that time. This was important to me because as a teenage girl in the late ’70s – yep, I’m that old – I was terrified as being tagged as a nerd. Now I’m super proud to be one.I was accepted by Northwestern – I’m not sure I would be today, so I think I timed that properly – and I completed two degrees from this fine institution, a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in applied math. Though I criticize my engineering education as too theoretical. I think the best engineers are those that can put the theoretical to practice, and I got almost no practice as an undergrad. Northwestern highlighted the criticality of broad-based thinking. Just being good in math and science will not drive success. It’s whole-brain thinking brought to practice that does. I’m thankful that Dean Ottino has brought a strong focus of this concept and applied it so well here to Northwestern engineering.As I was building my own foundation in engineering, I also found time to build a family. I gave birth to and raised two extraordinary children who are better people than I, and could be president of the universe, rather than just being president of SpaceX. One is a double alum in mechanical engineering from Northwestern and one will be a double alum from Stanford, both in mechanical engineering and business. As a mother giving advice to potential future parents: Never tell your children what they should be when they grow up – they will in fact do the opposite. But you can be a good role model, or show them good role models, as my mother did for me – she was an artist.For the last nearly 19 years I have worked for one of, if not the, finest physicist and engineer, Elon Musk. He gave me the opportunity to help him grow SpaceX from 10 people to nearly 10,000 people, and from zero revenue to billions annually. I have helped bring the commercial launch business back to this country, along with the tens of thousands of jobs that come with it. The one accomplishment that we have that I am most proud of is helping to get our country flying astronauts again on American-made rockets and spaceships. We are now positioned to fly astronauts from all over the world on our Dragon spaceship and later this year we will fly the first all-civilian mission, where regular everyday people will travel to space on a multi-day journey around Earth. And this is just the beginning.I hope that I have helped create a path that allows humans to live on Earth, the moon or Mars, whichever their choice. I hope for a future where people can live even further out, amongst other star systems and galaxies. I often joke about wanting to meet other people and see otherworldly fashion. I know I won’t see that in my lifetime, but I hope that my work serves as a foundation or a small beginning to achieve that.Okay, so now that you know more about me, it’s time to share some advice. I’ll name three and then I’ll go back and talk about them. Set and try to achieve absolutely absurd goals, and don’t be afraid of failing, if you can’t achieve them. Work hard, really hard, and be helpful. Be kind, but at minimum, be respectful. Don’t be afraid to admit that if you fail, you were wrong and take a different path – or better yet, don’t even consider trying something and not getting the outcome that you want as failure. Consider it growth.When I was considering joining SpaceX back in 2002 I was struggling with a decision and drawing it out for weeks. It seemed so risky for me personally to join this little start-up, in an industry where none had ever succeeded. At the time I was a part-time single mother, and this was just too far out of my comfort zone. I was driving on the freeway here in L.A. when it finally hit me: I was being a total idiot. Who cares if I tried this job and either I failed or the company failed? What I recognized at that moment was that it was the trying part that was the most important. Try that risky thing, be a part of something exciting. I don’t want to imagine what my life and career would be like had I said no. I’m sure I would have been fine but I would not have been a part of this amazing company, working alongside such extraordinary people. Not taking that job would have been the fail.On a business level, SpaceX took massive reputational risks, mastering the technology and operations associated with landing a rocket. In fact we were continually criticized by our competitors and the media for these failures. I looked on these failures as a source of pride. Our very first attempt to land the rocket on a drone ship, we hit it. We didn’t land on it, but we hit the drone ship – that tiny target was hundreds of miles away from the launch site in a vast ocean. After about a dozen attempts we finally succeeded in landing that rocket and landing rockets has become almost routine for us. Still tricky, but it’s almost routine. And that technology has been enormously helpful to our business and is critical to establishing a settlement on Mars. If you can’t land the rocket, you can’t get people to the surface.Working hard and being helpful. I was hired as vice president of business development – that means head of sales. Well I did my job and we got customers, but then their missions needed to be managed and we needed an accounting and finance function because we actually were bringing in money, we needed to work closely with the launch ranges and get permission to be able to launch from them, so I took that on as well. And, as we demonstrated success, we needed a government affairs function to play defense for us in D.C., as our competitor started fighting us. I remember even vacuuming the carpets before a big customer event. In 2008, when we won our biggest contract to date – a nearly $2 billion effort from NASA to take science experiments and cargo to-and-from the International Space Station – Elon needed a partner, and he asked me to do it. I think it was in large part because I had kept growing my scope, being helpful in other areas to the company, all trying to do a great job.Being kind, but at minimum, you must be respectful. Note that almost everyone that you interact with every day is battling some demon or trying to get through some issue. Please consider this as you battle your way to work on the subway, as you’re hurrying through the lines at the grocery store, or as you get frustrated with someone in a meeting at work.At SpaceX we have a ‘no a——‘ policy. These kinds of people – a—— – interrupt others, they shut down or co-opt conversation, and they create a hostile environment where no one wants to contribute. This is not a way to promote sharing good, innovative, and even outrageous ideas that are required to solve hard problems. In short, the best way to find solutions to hard problems is to listen harder, not talk louder. Embrace the ideas of your fellow workers, especially when they differ greatly from yours.Stuff that I’m not sharing lessons on but that I think are really important, especially to talk about in a commencement speech in 2021. I’m worried about a lot of things, but I’m not knowledgeable enough in these things to have any useful advice for you, at least not yet. However, I cannot in a commencement speech in 2021 fail to mention the things that I worry about knowing, that many are problems I want to help tackle in the future.I’m worried about our nation’s children. We are not giving all of our children an education that will shape them into resourceful and productive people that our country needs to remain relevant. Every child is a resource to better our future, and our future will be driven by technology. That is why I am so concerned about the science and math test scores that we have in this country. China scores first. Ireland – I just bring this up because it’s what my heritage is, my ancestors are from Ireland – scores 12th, and the United States ranks 25th.Worse than that, if there is a worse than scoring 25th in math and science as well as reading, is that the gap between our lowest scoring students and our highest scoring students is widening. We are not preparing our children for their future.I love this country and I’m worried about the widening, economic, social and racial divide which was amplified during the pandemic. Not addressing education for our youth is not helping that. We are not treating our neighbors with the respect that they deserve. We are not listening hard to each other and respectfully working on the really important issues that we face as a country and as a human race.I haven’t helped our country work on these issues yet – I whine a lot about it – and it’s time, probably in the very near term, for me to commit and help fix them. Maybe we can work on these things together.So I’ve given you some actual experience that taught me that more can be accomplished when crazy ideas are respected, listened to and evaluated. That being helpful and hardworking pays off; it did for me. And that wasting resources, especially human capital, is a moral and ethical sin. And that a small group of people, like those of us here at SpaceX, can change an industry, and by extension can help change the world.Growing up and even early in my career, my friends, colleagues and I focused on getting ahead with an aside or maybe even an afterthought that maybe we should do something good for the world. But as I accumulate more life’s lessons, it’s clear that a far richer life results from switching that up, finding a career where your pursuit of a better world leads to your getting ahead. And all of you have in you right now all that you need to start your pursuit of a better world. Congratulations, and Godspeed.”Become a smarter investor with CNBC Pro.Get stock picks, analyst calls, exclusive interviews and access to CNBC TV. Sign up to start a free trial today. More

In this articleTSCOGetty ImagesAmidst all the noise and debate over whether Apple wields too much power as a platform is this undeniable fact: for brick-and-mortar retailers, mobile apps and the App Store have been a game-changer.The earliest days of the pandemic brought retailers to a standstill. Customers, afraid to shop in-person for fear of the coronavirus, immediately turned to smartphones and laptops to purchase the things they needed and wanted. Curbside pick-up and home delivery of everything from groceries and meals to home improvement and pet food became the order of the day, forcing retailers to revamp e-commerce platforms and launch mobile apps in record time.CNBC Technology Executive Council members Andy Laudato of The Vitamin Shoppe and Tractor Supply Company’s Glenn Allison understand this transformation first-hand. They recently spoke at a TEC livestream event on LinkedIn where they explained how digital apps transformed the entire shopping experience for their customers throughout the pandemic, why app users are their most loyal customers, and why those changes are here to stay.With over 1,900 stores in 49 states, Tractor Supply Co. all but defines the rural lifestyle in retailing. Allison, vice president of customer facing applications and data analytics at the Brentwood, Tennessee-based company, says the pandemic pushed TSC to launch a wide range of digital capabilities, all designed to meet the newly changing needs of its customers. In addition to upgrading its website by leveraging the cloud through Microsoft’s Azure, TSC launched its first mobile app for consumers, he says.Launching the app during the pandemic not only enabled TSC to give customers yet another safe, secure way to shop, Allison says, but it also enabled lots of other changes that added to the customer experience. Curbside pick-up was introduced chain-wide, enabling customers to order from their phone, tablet, or laptop and pick-up goods outside the store. The app also prompted the retailer to upgrade the Wi-Fi inside its stores and enable Wi-Fi access in its massive parking lots so that customers could connect easily and quickly.”Whether customers were buying online or through the app, we wanted this curbside pickup to be just completely customer-focused and easy,” Allison says.The Vitamin Shoppe is a retailer focused on health and wellness and both were top of mind when it came to employees and customers in the earliest days of the pandemic, says chief operating officer Andy Laudato. He says the company rushed to launch contactless payments like Apple Pay and others, provided digital receipts, and enabled customers to scan products themselves when they came into Vitamin Shoppe stores.In 2014, the company launched an app to manage its loyalty program, Laudao says, but in 2017 expanded it to handle customer transactions. A separate internal app for employees enables salespeople to look up customer data and product details. “The vitamin and wellness categories are very complex and we needed a way to give our people the ability to understand and check on products so they could answer customer questions and make recommendations,” he says. There are also nutritionists within its stores and customers in the retailer’s loyalty program can schedule video chats and connect without ever having to come into a physical location.Like TSC, The Vitamin Shoppe introduced curbside pick-up at its stores during the pandemic, and last summer partnered with Instacart for same-day delivery of its products. “There was so much acceleration of digital during the pandemic, but because all of these things make it easier for the customer to do business with us, they’re all staying,” Laudato says. “We can really offer seamless experiences across every single channel, with the app at the forefront of that.”We can really offer seamless experiences across every single channel, with the app at the forefront of that.Andy Laudato, COO, The Vitamin Shoppe And while both Laudato and Allen recognize the margin implications of doing business in the App Store, they say they will follow customer preferences. “Generally our customers tend to download our app from the Apple ecosystem,” says Laudato. Allen says Apple has been “a great source of feedback and a direct link to our customers and what they’re looking for.””We have to make it easy for our customers to shop with us from anywhere and in any way they choose,” he adds. The pandemic might have forced that digital transformation to happen quickly for retailers, but it’s unlikely customers are ever going to want to shop any other way. More

Funeral workers wearing personal protective equipment carry a casket during the burial of a COVID-19 victim, amid a nationwide coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown, at the Olifantsvlei cemetery, south-west of Joburg, South Africa January 6, 2021.Siphiwe Sibeko | ReutersThe global spread of Covid-19 is moving faster than the global distribution of vaccines, World Health Organization officials said Monday.They attributed transmission rates to new variants, such as Alpha and Delta, which have been shown to be more contagious.”That means the risks have increased for people who are not protected, which is most of the world’s population,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said during a press briefing.While the number of new cases of the virus continues to decline worldwide, the number of deaths has not been declining at the same rate, he said. More than 3.8 million people have died from Covid across the world since the beginning of the pandemic.A person receives a dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine at a vaccination centre for those aged over 18 years old at the Belmont Health Centre in Harrow, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in London, Britain, June 6, 2021.Henry Nicholls | ReutersThe number of new cases has declined for seven weeks in a row, the longest streak of declines the world has seen since the beginning of the pandemic. But the number of deaths reported this week is still similar to those reported last week, he said.”While weekly cases are at their lowest since February, deaths are not falling as quickly,” Tedros said. “The global decline masks a worrying increase in cases and deaths in many countries.”Countries in Africa are experiencing higher mortality rates among those suffering from Covid than other countries, he said. The higher mortality rates are especially concerning because African countries have reported fewer cases than most other regions.CNBC Health & Science Read CNBC’s latest global coverage of the Covid pandemic:Boris Johnson extends current lockdown rules in England due to concerns over Delta Covid variant  WHO says Covid is spreading faster than the global distribution of vaccinesNovavax says its Covid vaccine is 90% effective, plans to submit data to FDA in third quarter   As Covid-19 cases wane, vaccine-lagging areas still see riskAfrican countries also have the least access to vaccines, diagnostics and oxygen supplies, highlighting the effects of medical inequity that global health officials have warned about.”There are enough doses of vaccines globally to drive down transmission and save many lives if they’re used in the right places for the right people,” Tedros said.The G-7 countries have pledged distribution of 870 million vaccine doses around the world, but the WHO says more are needed.”This is a big help, but we need more and we need them faster. More than 10,000 people are dying every day,” Tedros said. More

In this articleGEA CFM56-7B aircraft engine from a Boeing 737 stands on assembly stands in a maintenance hangar at MTU Maintenance Berlin-Brandenburg.Patrick Pleul | picture alliance | Getty ImagesGeneral Electric’s aviation unit and its joint venture partner Safran of France on Monday said they are developing new airplane engines that aim to cut emissions by more than a fifth of today’s levels.GE Aviation and Safran together produce some of the most commonly used aircraft engines under their CFM joint venture. Together they launched a new program, called CFM Rise, that will develop and test new technology that could enter service in the mid-2030s, the companies said.The aviation industry contributes about 2% of global carbon emissions, and aircraft manufacturers and airlines have been scrambling to find ways to reduce that, while balancing with, what before the Covid pandemic was, strong growth in travel demand.GE and Safran’s CFM joint venture makes engines for the Boeing 737 Max and also for the Airbus A320neo family. Competitor Pratt & Whitney, a unit of Raytheon Technologies also makes engines for the Airbus 320.The Rise program will work on technology that could reduce fuel consumption by more than 20% and also be compatible with sustainable aviation fuel and hydrogen, they said.The companies, which extended their partnership through 2050, plan to design an engine that is open fan, which is unlike the covered jet engines on commercial aircraft.CFM’s decision to design engines that can be compatible with multiple technologies shows the companies are thinking ahead, said Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at Teal Group.”It’s important that everything we’ve produced is not reduced to dead metal,” he said.The announcement comes from a slimmed-down GE after the conglomerate has shed or announced it would sell off units to bolster its balance sheet like its aircraft leasing arm.The engine development plan “says we do have the resources, a bit more financial strength right now,” Aboulafia said. “I think that’s a great message to send.” More

Denmark fans shout out Denmark’s midfielder Christian Eriksen’s name after the suspension of the UEFA EURO 2020 Group B football match between Denmark and Finland at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen on June 12, 2021.HANNAH MCKAY | AFP | Getty ImagesChristian Eriksen’s agent says the midfielder is “making jokes” in hospital but wants answers from doctors after suffering a cardiac arrest during Denmark’s Euro 2020 opener.Eriksen was given emergency CPR on the pitch during Saturday’s game against Finland, which was temporarily suspended as the 29-year-old was taken to Rigshospitalet, a hospital near Parken Stadium in Copenhagen.Denmark team doctor Morten Boesen said Eriksen was “gone”, but swift treatment on the field of play and by hospital staff meant the midfielder was stabilised, and he was later able to send his greetings to team-mates.Martin Schoots, Eriksen’s agent, told Italian outlet Gazzetta on Sunday that the Dane is in good spirits, and is “happy” after seeing the support he has received from around the game.”We spoke this morning [Sunday]. He was making jokes, he was in a good mood, I thought he was well,” Schoots said.”We all want to understand what happened to him, and he does too: the doctors are making some in-depth tests, but we’ll need some time.”He was happy, because he understood how much love he has around him. He received messages from the whole world. And he was particularly struck by those in the Inter environment: not just his team-mates who spoke to him in their private chat, but also the fans.Read more stories from Sky SportsMbappe: Giroud shouldn’t have publicly criticised team-matesWhat is CPR and how did it save Eriksen’s life?Rooney: Croatia win massive but tougher challenges lie ahead”Christian won’t give up. Him, and his family, want to make sure that everybody receives their thanks. Half the world contacted us, everyone was worried. Now he only needs to rest, his wife and parents are with him.”Even tomorrow [Monday], he will remain under observation, maybe Tuesday as well. But in any case he wants to support his team-mates against Belgium.”The swift intervention of Simon Kjaer and the medical staff saved Eriksen’s life.”[Eriksen] was gone,” Denmark’s team doctor Boesen said. “We did cardiac resuscitation, it was a cardiac arrest. How close were we to losing him? I don’t know but we got him back after one defib, so that’s quite fast.”Eriksen’s sudden collapse prompted Kjaer to clear his team-mate’s airways and start the life-saving CPR technique, which was continued with the aid of a defibrillator and professional medical staff.Fortunately, the Denmark captain’s first aid skills proved vital and Eriksen is now recovering in hospital and considered to be out of danger. More