Armintas Sinkevicius, CPA, CFA, Vice President,
Equity Research at Morgan Stanley in New York City wrote a research piece
noting that “Spaceflight Industries is ‘entirely’ disrupting the rocket launch
market”
For those Marquette finance alumni and students who have
traveled to New York the past 15 years in October with Dr. David Krause, they know about the
investment research expertise of Armintas Sinkevicius, who has often hosted the
students at Morgan Stanley. Armintas is a CPA, CFA, and a Vice President of Equity Research at Morgan Stanley, where he covers Autos
& Shared Mobility.
 |
| Armintas Sinkevicius |
He and his colleagues research is widely covered and considered to be some of the best on the Street, according to Dr. Krause. "Armintas has been a strong supporter of Marquette and the AIM program. Not only does he host us when we visit New York, but he has returned to campus and has willingly mentors many of our students. He is a great example of our alumni network who continue to support the Marquette mission."
Armintas has worked as an analyst for Point72 and
as a senior associate with PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York following
graduation from Marquette in 2008. He majored in Accounting and Finance.
The link to the CNBC article can be found here.
Morgan Stanley says Spaceflight Industries is
‘entirely’ disrupting the rocket launch market
PUBLISHED FRI, FEB 1 2019 • 3:00 PM
KEY POINTS
·
Spaceflight Industries’ rocket launch services business is
disrupting the industry’s model ‘entirely,’ Morgan Stanley said in a note to
investors Friday.
·
The note is the latest in Morgan Stanley’s “Space Disruptor
Series.”
·
Spaceflight packed a record-breaking 64 satellites on a SpaceX
rocket in December.
The
booster of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lands on the company’s barge after
launching the Spaceflight SSO-A mission.
The rocket launch business is expensive and risky, and then there
are the technical requirements: Launch providers have to ensure a customer’s
delicate and expensive spacecraft survives the trip to orbit.
But Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries is showing things can be
done differently, according to Morgan Stanley analysts Adam Jonas and Armintas
Sinkevicius. In a note to investors Friday, they said that the company “is
disrupting this model entirely” by applying the ride sharing concept to
satellites.
The company packed a record-breaking 64 satellites on a SpaceX rocket in
December for a mission known as Spaceflight SSO-A. Morgan Stanley called it “a
significant milestone for the company.”
The practice of satellite “ridesharing” has become more
commonplace, in part thanks to Spaceflight. As technological advancements have
led to smaller satellites, that means more of them can be loaded onto rockets
as secondary payloads – hitchhiking on launches like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 as they
bring larger satellites to orbit.
That makes it less expensive for satellite operators and fills
space in what otherwise would have been empty payload for rocket launchers.
“Spaceflight is significantly driving down the cost of launch with its ride
sharing model, allowing smaller satellite companies to launch more cost
efficiently and launch operators to fill excess capacity,” Morgan Stanley said.
“Spaceflight is able to provide customers with flexibility by virtue of having
capacity with many different launch providers.”
Curt Blake, the CEO of Spaceflight launch services, told CNBC,
“Rideshare applies across the board and the whole idea of flexibility, and how
crucial that is, as it brings the airline model to space. That is huge. We’re
moving rapidly toward a model where you’re not buying a spot on a specific
launch vehicle – you’re buying the ability to get to a destination.”
SpaceX’s
Falcon 9 rocket launches the Spaceflight SSO-A mission.
Blake said about Morgan Stanley’s analysis, “I think it means that
people, and Wall Street, are starting to see this industry as a valuable one
and they’ve identified our company as … a disruptor, which is a great term.”
The note is the latest in Morgan Stanley’s “Space Disruptor
Series,” which features commentary on 90 companies by Morgan Stanley’s “Space Team,” which is led by Jonas.
Spaceflight Industries has two businesses: The all-in-one launch
services unit, known as Spaceflight, and a satellite imagery unit called
BlackSky. The former “has launched 210 satellites” to date, Morgan Stanley
said. Spaceflight isn’t slowing down, either, with contracts to launch about
100 satellites this year.
BlackSky represents the company’s reach into satellite operations.
The unit successfully launched two satellites at the end of last year, Global-1
and Global-2, and expects to launch six more this year. Spaceflight Industries
aims to eventually have constellation of 60 satellites to provide
high-resolution photos of Earth nearly on demand.
The company announced a $150 million fundraising round in March
for the first 20 satellites of the BlackSky constellation.
Additionally, BlackSky is one of several companies working with
Amazon Web Services for the recently-announced AWS Ground Station business. Amazon’scloud
business is building a network of satellite connection facilities, representing
the e-commerce giant’s first public move into space-related hardware.
Ground stations are a vital link for transmitting data to-and-from
satellites in orbit, used by companies engaged in a variety of activities like
weather forecasting, communications and broadcasting. AWS Ground Station aims
to remove the heavy capital costs for these companies of building their own
ground station networks off of satellite operators.
Morgan Stanley hosted its first “Space Summit ” in New York City in
December and is telling clients to pay attention to space companies.
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