SpaceX Launches Private Astronaut Mission to Space Station

Bloomberg Business Weekend iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot Com. You can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern Time on the Bloomberg Radio or watch us on YouTube search Bloomberg clovel News. Well. Over the next thirty minutes, we're digging deep into the world of space exploration and evs,

all with an Elon Musk connective threat. So right now we want to talk about what's going on with that SpaceX Falcon nine rocket caring for private astronauts that lifted off at eleven seventeen am Eastern Time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Tim It was the first private mission to the International Space Station sanctioned by NASA fifty five million dollars per seat. But think about it, it's a big deal. That's a lot of money. It is

a lot of money. It's not something that's the big deal, though, it's a huge about what's going on. Let's talk about it with Ed lud the West Coast correspondent for Bloomberg News. He finds himself now though in Flora Cape Canaveral, Florida, where he joins us to talk about SpaceX launching its first private astronaut mission to the space station. And that happened just a few hours ago. Where are these astronauts

right now. Yes, so they're in their orbit right there now, slowing things right down inside the capsule, and they're about two and a half hours into a twenty hour journey to the International Space Station. And I can tell you Carol and Tim that they've taken off their space suits. They're shiny white SpaceX space suits, and they've had their first space meal as they get some R and R

ahead of that long journey. Uh, it's unbelievable. I mean, I feel like there's just so many ways to look at it in terms of space exploration generally right, private public sector working together. And then of course there's a political aspect. So what's what's the historic moment. I think I heard you talking about the launch pad that was being used today. Well, yeah, so this launched Complex thirty nine A. It's the same pad that first took man to the moon, right, and and it's you know, without

getting too carried away with ourselves. I spoke to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, and he called today an inflection point because what he as under his leadership, what NASA has tried to do is pass the baturn from public sector to private sector. Where NASA doesn't have an infinite budget. The I S S costs four billion dollars a year in terms of the US contribution to maintain it. So what they want is the private sectors to step up.

Not just in the context of SpaceX carrying humans to the I S S. Today was the first all private crew, no public sector or government astronauts, but they actually want the private sector to take over for the space station itself. And as you guys know, the I S S goes gets decommissioned in one and their hope is that Axiom, this Texas based startup, by that point will have built its own commercial, private sector space station that will maintain and stay up in orbit. So what are these folks

doing once they get to the space station. How long are they going to be there? And who are they gonna be with? So everyone's been at pains to point out that they're not there for a vacation, although you know, they kind of are. They've paid fifty five million dollars a seat for the opportunity. But they're going to be conducting scientific experiments. They're going to be conducting assembly AI related in experiments looking at the human anatomy and physiology

on in a zero gravity environment. And they did almost a thousand hours each of training for this mission, the four private astronauts, So they have prepared for this, and NASA is kind of excited, right because they get access to the data generated up there. And I guess the other part of your question, Tim, My understanding is they could have dinner with the three Russian astronauts that are currently on board the s S. Yeah, that's going to

go well, or is it? Like? So, how does the backdrop of our geopolitical tensions um and tension, it's war, let's just call it what it is. How might that that conversation or that meeting or you know, will it even happen? So it's at the discretion of the three cosmonauts to invite either the private Axiom crew, the four members or the exist Remember there's three US astronauts currently on I S S and the German you know, so

it's completely at their discretion. Bill Nelson, national Administrator, told me he thought it would happen. CAFEE leaders who run space operation here as associate administrators, told me it would happen. The fighting talk is really coming from the Russian side. Dmitri Ruggazin, who's the head of ross Cosmos, their space agency, said that the economic and trade sanctions in place on Russia, if they're not removed, then Russia could pull out of the I S S agreement, which is quite a threat.

That's a really big deal because Russia is responsible for a large portion of the I S S yearly budget, just after the United States contribution. And then there's also the element for years, the US relied on soy use rockets to actually get astronauts from from the United States. They would go to you know, go to parts of Russia or after parts of outside, just outside of Russia to actually get to the International Space Station. Explain what's

going on here, Yeah, it's multifaceted. But yes, historically NASA has in part relied on Russia and the Sawyers system to get astronauts from Earth to the International Space Station. I'm talking about U s citizens, right, hitching a ride with Russia essentially, and of course they've relied on them to bring them back. SpaceX has changed that somewhat, of course, because SpaceX is sending and bringing back astronauts are quite

a regular cadence from here in Florida. The other side of it is you have names like Northfrook Grumman, You have names like United Launch Alliance that use Russian built engines for their own launch systems. Now with the sanctions situation, they don't have access to those, and SpaceX isn't going to start selling their engines to those US players. Blue Origin,

the jeffs Or startup is trying to. But this whole conflict or war in Ukraine has completely changed the dynamico spaces cut Russia off from its customers, and it's cut Nasser off. But I would say that Bill Nelson did leave the door open to US astronauts traveling on Sawyers, whether it's this year next year, because as he puts it. There are level terms, there are professional terms when it comes to space, and we have peace in space irrespective

of what's happening on Earth. That's actually comforting words and interesting considering our backdrop. Ed Ludlow, Um, you're reporting is just fantastic and so glad that we had some time with your Ed Ludlow. He's a West Coast correspondent at Bloomberg News from Cape Canaveral, Florida. And I just want to point out that, as we said, we're gonna do a bit more on Tesla and Elon Muskers coming up next, we're gonna get into what happened at last night's Tesla

cyber rodeo in Austin, Texas. Yeah, it's been a big week from Twitter to Texas to Florida for space X. We got it all covered here on Bloomberg Radio. You talk about innovation to disruption like him, are not. He definitely moves the needle on a lot of things. I sell some statistic about E VS. The ramp up and the number that's out there. It's just showing that it's great gaining traction overall. All Right, you're listening to Bloomberg

Business Week on Bloomberg Radio. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. So we did promise you more from the world of Elon Muss Last night, Elon and Tesla hosting a cyber rodeo at the company's new factory in Austin, Texas. And uh did a lot of things, including giving some updates for delayed products and more. We weren't there, but we know who was. Sean o'caine is EV reporter for

Bloomberg News. He joins us via zoom from Austin, Texas. Sean, really good to have you with us on Bloomberg Business Week Radio. What was it like last night? Overwhelming? There's a lot going on, um, and not just in sort of the events and the concert aspect and all of that. And of course Elon must talking that, you know, just being inside this new factory and seeing a lot of the stuff they've already set up and have pretty much

ready to go. Well, and let's talk about this because this you know, you know Tesla well, and we talked about a lot for such a long time. You know, he'd put out, you know, estimates forecast they wouldn't happen, and so on and so forth. Um, we are waiting for the cybertruck, the roadster, the tell us what we we found out and can we believe it? Well, I mean, how much time do you have? Uh? It was surprisingly

a news light event for the most part. Um. You know, Elon Musk got up there and spoke for about a half an hour and really just sort of ran everybody through sort of the history of Tesla and abridged version um and uh, and a little bit about the future and the plans that he has for expansion. But it wasn't really anything too new, um compared to what we've heard him talk about before on earnings calls or at

other events. Maybe the only really sort of new thing that we heard was that he said Tesla's working on building a dedicated robotaxi um, so a whole new vehicle that would be just sort of purpose built for fully autonomous vehicle travel. But you know, we still haven't seen the company come up with that technology in the cars that has today, even though it's working towards it. So it's one of the many things you can add to the list, Like you know, the Tesla van, which was

something you talked about a long time ago. We were hey, Sean, we were showing video for our YouTube users, and so the silver truck or whatever that he was getting cyber truck, is that the cyber truck. That's it, right? Yeah, And that was the first time that we've ever seen, at least that we know of the two prototypes that they have working of the cyber truck in the same place. Uh. And so yeah, that was something that a lot of people they were really excited to see. Okay, how big

of a grain of salt should we take these dates? Uh, Sean, Because well, I hear Tesla robo taxi, right, and I think back to when you know, Elon must promise we'd be seeing he's on the roads back. So well, here we are three years later, no robo taxis, and then at the same time, the cyber truck in the semi or you know this, we're supposed to be in production already. Um. I mean, I think you're right in thinking that there

should be grains of salt taken with some of this stuff. Uh. You know, as a writer myself, I know I have trouble with deadlines, so I can't but you still got this piece in last night. And yes, uh though with help for sure. And uh and Ellen is definitely someone who likes to go it alone, at least at the top level of the company a lot of times. So yeah, I mean, I think we should view any date that he sets, whether it's Tessla or any of the other

companies that he runs with, with huge skepticism. Um it doesn't mean that they aren't working on these things, they are just sort of, uh, you know, test this problem. And Elon's problem really has always been never willing. He's never really willing to fully accept or understand the challenges that he's sort of put in front of him because

he's been able to accomplish him pretty wild things. But I think he thinks at the outset of some of these projects that he's going to be able to make those sort of breakthrough moves along the way that he typically stumbles his way into or designs his way into, and sometimes those are a little bit harder to come by than I think he expects. You know, I think it was back I was just checking. I was doing

quick Google search. I think it was back in we used to keep track of um Lan's forecast deadline schedules because it was constantly Sean so fluid um and that's just kind of who he is. But it's interesting how investors have kind of gotten used to it, because you know, if we look at what he's done, he ultimately does seem to deliver um. Can you just tell us about the drones flying in the night sky? Did you get

to see that? Yeah? That was pretty cool. I mean they we've seen this a lot of tech companies and stuff and started doing this and sporting events and everything. But it was nice to see them sort of go through sort of the design work and put in the thought to come up with really kind of clever or funny things to show in this drone show. We saw like a portrait of Nicola Tesla. We saw the she

you know that is sort of thematica coach coin. We even saw a little um uh, the meme that kind of shows up at the end of the ordering process when you buy a Tesla, this little hedgehog that is throwing up the little okay symbol. So it was you know, it's a very considerate as far as uh, you know, things within the realm of Tesla uh and people who

follow the world closely U that surrounds this business. It was a very considerate thing for all those people to see it was it was something else, the humanoid robot that didn't make it just quickly it was there. But it's still very much a just department store mannequin uh prop up on a stage. It is. It is not something that is working. So we'll see that one might need a little bit more salt than some of the others. Looking forward to that timeline coming true. Sean Okaine, thank

you so much. Really fun Evie reporter or Bloomberg News. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well the new Wayshaw Bloomberg business Week. It is out. It's online at business Week dot com, Bloomberg dot com, also on the Bloomberg terminal, and it's on newstand. Joel Weber is editor at Bloomberg business Week. He joins the via the Access line from Brooklyn. You can follow him on Twitter

at Joel Weber's Show. Joel, I got in my hands the current issue of Bloomberg Business Week magazine. I want to start with the cover and then we're gonna get to the cover story, but one of my favorite parts about Business Week each week is talking to you about how the cover is made, or even just finding out how the cover is made, flipping it open to the table of contents and reading that take us through how

this one came together. So this cover story is by Joshua Green, and it's about David McCormick, who, until earlier this year is actually CEO of Bridgewater, the world's largest hedge fund UH. He is now a candidate for the gop UH Senate position, a seat in Pennsylvania, and that primary is unfolding now. The election primary election is next month and he's in a heated race with Dr Rosz. So the story really focuses on McCormick um and and sort of his transformation from being U hedge fund finance

type into a Trump loving maga UH politician. And to do that, we really wanted to, you know, show show what he was like the environments that he's now at with these rallies. And we just had this amazing photo that we got of him sort of cackling, and it was just the perfect image to go with a line um The dominant part of which is you know, full maga. I said to Tim, this is a guy who is on a mission. If it looks like, you know, we'll kind of do whatever he needs to do or be

whoever he needs to be to get to his ultimate goal. Yeah, and I think, you know, um John, it's not like the Republican um side of his politics as a surprise. I mean, he's long been um known to be Republican and has prob you know, Josh, as Josh writes in the story, like potentially grand ambitions than just this the Senate seat. But it has taken his Bridgewater colleagues a little bit by surprise just how um full maga he's gone.

And it also speaks, as Josh writes in the story, to what it takes to actually really uh be a successful Republican at this stage. And for a while post Trump, there was maybe a theory that you would be able to to see more centrist candidates, and it turns out that even somebody like McCormick, who who probably in a non Trump world would have been a centest, has to attack.

And now you know, there he and Dr Oz are effectively trying to out trump one another, and all all to basically get Trump's blessing, and if either of them happens to get the blessing, it might be enough to

put him over the top. Well, I do want to give a shout out to not just Josh who who wrote the story, but also to our editor's roundtable discussion that's part of our Bloomberg Business Week weekend show, which drops tomorrow, because we do talk a lot about the story Joel, but one area that we didn't get to

hit with Josh was China connections for David McCormick. And I thought this was a really interesting part of the piece because if we think about what the Trump administration, the Trump Adminstration's tone towards China and where we are when it comes to Republicans in China, Uh, what he did at Bridgewater, many would argue, uh, does not really

jell with that. Yeah. And and there's a very memorable scene with with Josh and Dr oz In in the in the bathroom actually where Josh got to interview Dr oz And and basically Dr oz at that moment said as much um to Josh and that he was surprised that more people haven't been frustrated with McCormick on that on on the China score, because you're right, Bridgewater um famously has been very sympathetic to China, has court of Chinese dollars, has made a ton of money there and

you know a lot of that happened on McCormick's watch as CEO. Uh so you know what what he can Also he's also pushed back on that and said, you know, it's only a fraction of the business and um, you know,

was in direct something that that he oversaw. But you know, the fact of the matter is if in the political world in which we look in now, everything looks like it could be weaponized and that looks like something that may continue to be used against them, um, either in this race and racist com All right, so that's the domestic cover story. We also, um had a chance to catch up this week with you and Sarifire on the

international cover story, which has to do with the French elections. Yeah, so we uh we You know that that McCormick story is interesting because that I forgot to mention that it's the most expensive primary and Senate history, but it's all and it also just shows how this idea that that I think transfixed the US the last election cycle, the last election cycles of you know, how misinformation can be weaponized and how rife it is on social media, and

you know, we've spent a lot of time talking about the social media companies and the platforms and what they're doing to fight misinformation. And it turns out that a lot of these problems are still um are still festering. And France, which has an election on Sunday, happens to be a surprising case study in just how how wrong it all still looks. The far right candidates there, Marine Lepine ericson Moore have managed to basically get UM uh Emmanuel McCrone to to have to have to veer more

towards their lane. UH. The race which I think a lot of people would probably thought McCrone would probably be able to to walk away with looks really tight and even, and it will basically lead to a runoff. And even in that runoff, it looks like UM currently like some of the numbers suggest that Lapin could have the edge.

And it all comes down to basically what what Sarah Fryar and company right in the story UM is that there's more tactics really brought racial grievances to the forefront country that's already obsessed with nash fialism has become just it's become a weapon there and a lot of the same echo chamber of misinformation. They there's a more campaign

is used to great advantage. Well, let's go to another story featured in Bloomberg Business Week this week, this one by Mark German, and it's about Apple workers are pushing back on their return to office almost two years after they were first sent home. So Monday marks the day that Apple employees are set to return to the office. Um,

are they just willingly going to come back to the office. Oh? Man, it's a it's a story that I'm really interested in because even um, you know, the world's moth valuable company on Apple UH is struggling to get its employees to

come back to the office. And the German story opens with uh this reference to a promotional video titled Escape from the Office that Apple published recently, and it's basically about how a group of of heroes in this US ad working for this fictitious company basically get Apple devices and can start their own company. And boy, the irony there is just that if I can use a bunch of Apple devices to start my own company, Like why why do I have to work from an office for Apple? Uh?

And that is exactly what Apple is wrestling with. It's not alone, a lot of corporate America is wrestling with this same thing. Uh. And you know they're having to come up with some accommodative policies because maybe exacts need to be in the office, but others, um, not not so much. So all of that UH leads to sort of like you know, even even the most fabulous, wealthy

companies in the world are are wrestling with uh. You know how how ranks want to deal with rto talk about tensions man, um, great issue and so fun to check in with you. Uh. The editor of Bloomberg Business Week, Jill Weber, on the phone from Brooklyn, And of course check out our weekend show. You can hear it on radio Bloomberg Radio at eight am Saturday. You can also catch it on our podcast Speed and check out also that editor's roundtable that we do with Joel and we

talk about cover stories. You are listening to Bloomberg, I'm roam, yeah, but you let me drive? No, no, no no, honey, please, I'll do the ravels. I want to drive it's good question. Drive, which is the Drive to the Clothes down on bloom Bird Radio. All right, we've got about ten minutes left in today's trading session, getting ready to wrap up the week. Let's not forget earnings start in a big way next week, those little things with the big banks, uh, Tippian Morgan, Morgan,

Stanley Goldman Sachs. That will be a focus next week. Right now that we're focusing on stocks, we're seeing some selling into the clothes, not quite at our loads of the day, as we just heard from Charlie, but nonetheless moving down. Let's get to it, and let's get to the Drive to the clothes. Lisa eric Son is co ahead of the Public Markets group at US Bank Wealth Management. Lisa joins us on the phone from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lisa, how are you? How are things in Minneapolis? We're having

a great day, thanks so much to him. Great is it you always? Whenever everyone says that and the markets down, Carol says, do you really mean really having a good day? Tell me what great means? Uh No, But in this environment, it's a rough one. You know, we held our Bloomberg lives as rough as it was a month ago, that's true. We hear a Bloomberg Live Wealth event, uh and talking with a lot of investment professionals like yourself, and I caught up at the president of the Nicey Group and

Catherine Keating over at b and Y Melon. She's ahead of b and Y Melon Wealth, and there was a lot of optimism, but everybody's keeping a very close watch on how aggressive the FETE is going forward. What is it that kind of keeps you up up at night when it comes to the outlook. Well, to your point, Carol, we really do think the FET is one of the

key items we need to keep our eye on. And really the reason why is as they move from this approach of accommodation to normalization, they really have a tight rope to walk. And that's because coming into this year we really knew already that the comparisons would be hard. We had such strong reopening in one that it was just going to be hard for growth to be anyway.

And now on top of that, inflation has been elevated for longer than I think most expected, And on top of that we have the very unfortunate human situation and tragedy in the Ukraine and Russia. Which again may keep prices elevated and supply constraints uh going forward. So really they've got a tough hole in terms of really trying to moderate those price pressures while not hopefully denigrating growth

toe to great a degree. Yeah, sometimes I have to say it certainly feels crossed talking about equity markets and environment like this because there is so much suffering happening around the world. Um, but we we should note that a lot of what we're seeing playout in market today is a dire result of geopolitics right now, especially when

it comes to inflation on when it comes to energy. Lisa, I'm wondering, can you give us some numbers behind how you're thinking inflation will moderate or if it will stay elevated this year, because we do get CPO next week and it's and it's looking like it's going to be pretty hot. Absolutely well, we do see that there are

some pressures on the side to help that moderate. On the positive side, we have seen the labor force continue to heal and particularly those participation numbers pick up, and that's really nice because there's more workers come back into the workforce. That's going to help offset some of those supply chain pressures. Uh, And we have seen just organically some improvements overall in logistical chains and things like that,

so there are some countervailing forces. Again, the really the wild card, I think is going to be to your point, some of these geopolitical events, it's really hard to handicap and to assess really what the outcome is going to be. But obviously the longer those constraints continue, the it's going to be a force to keep that inflationary pressure up.

All right, So what do you have to do then for investors portfolios at this point or how do you think about it in terms of you know, there's capital preservation, which sometimes in a crazy market environment, that's what it's about, just not losing too much in an environment, rather than thinking about gains or out performance. Absolutely well, we're really at a balanced position right now on our outlook across

asset classes. And what that means for us is really, uh, for the investor, all other things being equals staying at their typical strategic allocation to equities. And the reason for that is despite you know, some of these risks that we're talking about, and really the difficult situation if you look at the underlying fundamentals. We're actually in an okay place.

When we track our global health check of indicators across the US, what we see is really actually a solid picture, and while there's some slowly in some of the indicators, it's really from a very high level, and corporations have continued to do well in terms of their earnings. So we're starting from that solid operational base and really just watching to see how some of these risks play out

as the year continues to unfold. Okay, so you talked about what an investor should be doing right now when it comes to their own allocation and staying the course. If you were to deploy new money right now, where would you put it? Would you put it in ships because they're selling off. Yeah, Well, we really are advocating rebalancing again to what those strategic positions would be in equities.

And then on the fixed income side, we're really a little bit more cautious again on the back of UH the fact that the Fed is got this road to UH move towards in terms of continuing to normalize policy. And so with that more cautious stance with fixed income, we actually think an interesting place to invest this global infrastructure.

We see that as an opportunity to benefit both from some internal to the US ongoing reopening activity at all, so provide some inflationary offset as well as provides some really nice diversified cash flows on an ongoing basis. Okay, what about you know, market indicators. We follow different things,

whether it's the VIX, whether it's the doubt transports. The transports down another one percent in today's session, if I look for the week overall down almost seven percent, you know, in times past, I'm thinking of different market cycles, we would say that that's a negative sign about what's to come in the economy. Do you buy it well, certainly, and I don't mean do you well. Do you buy it in terms of is it an opportunity investment opportunity

or do you buy the signal that things are getting darker? Well, certainly it is an important indicator to watch. But we really take a whole mosaic approach though, again as we look at not only the transports and the VIX, but a number of other indicators. That's really leading us to this more balanced conclusion that at least as far as the risk on stance, really just staying more at the neutral position with typically wherever you would be and continue

to watching how that data unfolds. Well, again, there's some risk on the horizon. We do see this appetite for reopening, and consumers and corporate coffers really continue to remain healthy, although there's been a little bit of draw down on the consumer side. That again is a support for the equity market. Really interesting stuff. Um, we only have about twenty seconds left with you. Um, does the US hit

a recession the next twelve months? Well, our bass case really is we're going to see some slowing, but we aren't seeing recession yet in the cards. Again, the path forward is pretty uncertain, so we're going to just have to continue to monitor, monitor, and buckle up. Sounding like the FED, we're gonna be data dependent, which makes sense. I really think that's a fair assessment in terms of where we are. Lisa, listen, have a great weekend. Nice

to check in with you again. Lisa Erickson, she's senior vice president co head of the Public Markets Group over at US Bank Wealth Management. On the phone from Minneapolis. Thanks for listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Download the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud or Bloomberg dot com, and you can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, or watch us on YouTube. Search to Bloomberg Global News