Astronauts ring Nasdaq bell from space station
Cited as a ‘pivotal moment’ for the space economy
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The astronauts launched into orbit by SpaceX joined in the ringing of the opening bell for the Nasdaq on Tuesday to mark “a pivotal moment” for the space economy.
NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken took part in the ceremony from the International Space Station, three days after their launch by Elon Musk’s company.
SpaceX became the first private company to send astronauts into orbit, with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule, and ended a nineyear launch drought for NASA.
The two astronauts floated alongside space station commander Chris Cassidy as he rang a ship’s bell to open trading on the
Nasdaq Stock Exchange. Their image, along with live-streamed pictures of other NASA staff, lit up the Nasdaq marquee in New York’s Times Square.
“It is truly a pivotal moment in the development of the space economy and a new era of private human spaceflight,” said Nasdaq President Adena Friedman.
She asked the astronauts about making spaceflight more accessible to ordinary people.
“It’s really transformational when you come into space and look back at our planet, and then see how fragile it is and how thin the atmosphere is. It really does change you for the better,” Hurley said. “I think the more people that we expose to this, the better off we’ll be as a species.”
NASA wants to be just one customer of many, noted Jim Morhard, the space agency’s deputy administrator, who took part in the virtual bell ringing. SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, Boeing and other companies looking to send people into space are driving down costs while increasing innovation, he said.
“We’re really at the dawn of a new space age,” Morhard said.
Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street Tuesday, extending the market’s winning streak to a third day.
The latest gains, which followed a rally in global stocks, were driven by optimism that the global economy will begin to recover as
governments gradually allow businesses that were closed due to the coronavirus outbreak to reopen.
The S&P 500 closed 0.8% higher after spending much of the morning wavering. Technology, industrial and health care sector stocks accounted for a big slice of the gains. Energy stocks far outpaced the rest of the market as the price of crude oil rose again. Bond yields rose, another sign of ebbing pessimism among investors.
So far, Wall Street’s momentum has not been derailed by the wave of daily unrest across the U.S. that began last week in Minneapolis as a protest over police brutality. Cities across the country have been rocked by violence and destruction for seven days in a row, drawing threats from the White House to send troops in to put down the unrest.
“The market action seems to have a lot more to do with people’s confidence about the economic reopening,” said Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “It’s happening irrespective to what we’re seeing socially across the country right now.”