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Gen. Kelly Forced Ousted Secret Service Chief on Trump

Official Washington and much of the national press was in an uproar Monday afternoon following the president's announcement Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex" Alles was being replaced.

Little mentioned in all of the debate over whether Alles was fired – or (as he was claiming late in the afternoon) the director is leaving on his own – is his appointment was virtually forced on Trump in April 2017 by then-Secretary of Homeland Security (and future White House chief of staff) John Kelly.

"At one point, Kelly threatened he would resign unless Trump appointed Alles," Ron Kessler, author of the critically acclaimed book "The Trump White House," told Newsmax.

Trump, in fact, had no intention of appointing Alles, a retired Marine Corps major general and old friend of fellow marine Kelly's. The president's preference was George Mulligan, a veteran agent and chief operating officer of the Secret Service.

Moreover, as Kessler wrote in his book, "[when] he interviewed Alles, Trump was not impressed. Alles volunteered that he knew next to nothing about the Secret Service.  Apparently, it was too much trouble to read books and articles about the agency or to check out the Secret Service website before meeting with the president."

Of his two year stint at the helm of the Secret Service, Kessler wrote that its agents "are also unimpressed by Alles and largely ignore him. . . . Apparently, co-opted by Secret Service management, Alles proved to be the exact opposite of what was needed to reform the Secret Service."

In his book, Kessler concluded "nothing has changed within the Secret Service since the party-crashing Salahis went prancing into the White House state dinner back in 2009, or since I broke the Secret Service prostitution scandal in 2012 . . ."

Alles, he wrote flatly, "not only retained that same senior management that produced so many scandals, he has done nothing to change the agency's culture that has led to those scandals and the low morale that results in a shockingly high turnover rate."

Nevertheless, "Gen. Kelly wanted [Alles] in the worst way, and nobody else wanted him," former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told Kessler.

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Court tosses military panel proceedings against suspected USS Cole attack mastermind

A federal appeals court in Washington on Tuesday rejected yearslong proceedings against the accused mastermind of the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. The proceedings were conducted by a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the military judge in the terrorism case against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri improperly presided over the trial at the same time he was seeking a job with the Justice Department (DOJ) as an immigration judge. In the panel's ruling, Judge David Tatel wrote that retired Air Force Col. Vance Spath's application for the DOJ position "created a disqualifying appearance of partiality" and vacated all orders issued by Spath in the case after he applied for the job in 2015.

"We cannot permit an appearance of partiality to infect a system of justice that requires the most scrupulous conduct from its adjudicators," said Tatel, who was joined in the ruling by Judges Judith Rogers and Thomas Griffith.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri has been in U.S. custody since 2002.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri has been in U.S. custody since 2002. (AP)

In a further twist, Col. Shelly Schools, who'd briefly replaced Spath, was also removed after it was revealed that she also sought to become an immigration judge.

The ruling likely means that the prosecution of al-Nashiri in the Cole bombing, which killed 17 American sailors and wounded 37 more while the vessel was being refueled in Yemen's Aden harbor, will have to begin anew. Al-Nashiri has been in U.S. custody since 2002 but was not arraigned in the Cole bombing until 2011, and the case has been delayed several times over various legal and logistical issues

Spath himself called a halt to proceedings last year following the discovery of microphones in a room where al-Nashiri met with his lawyers, and the lawyers' subsequent decision to resign from the case for ethical reasons.

The USS Cole bombing killed 17 sailors and injured 37 others in October 2000.  (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis, file)

The USS Cole bombing killed 17 sailors and injured 37 others in October 2000.  (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis, file) (The Associated Press)

Spath touted his role as the presiding judge over al-Nashiri's case in his employment application, including submitting an order he had issued as a writing sample, the appeals court said. He was hired as an immigration judge last year.

But "while Spath made sure to tell the Justice Department about his assignment to al-Nashiri's commission, he was not so forthcoming with al-Nashiri. At no point in the two-plus years after submitting his application did Spath disclose his efforts to secure employment" as an immigration judge, Tatel wrote.

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The court was also critical of prosecutors, the Justice Department and the Court of Military Commission Review, which upheld many of Spath's orders.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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EU impatient with Brexit, but resigned to delay

FILE PHOTO: British and EU flags flutter outside the Houses of Parliament in London
FILE PHOTO: British and EU flags flutter outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain January 17, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

March 19, 2019

By Thomas Escritt and Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union governments are exasperated by British dithering over quitting the bloc but have little appetite for pushing it out on schedule next week without a divorce deal, senior figures said on Tuesday.

EU ministers in Brussels to prepare a summit with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday voiced frustration after the speaker of parliament threw up a new obstacle for her plan to get her Brexit deal ratified before the March 29 deadline.

“Our patience as the European Union is being sorely tested at the moment,” German Europe minister Michael Roth told reporters. “Dear friends in London, please deliver. The clock is ticking.”

But Roth also echoed comments in Berlin by Chancellor Angela Merkel, the EU’s pre-eminent leader, who said she would “fight to the last minute” until midnight (2300 GMT) on March 29 to ensure an orderly exit for the EU’s second-ranked economy.

He said Germany’s main aim was to avoid a no-deal Brexit, which would disrupt business across the continent.

However, after two defeats for the Withdrawal Agreement that May negotiated with the EU, and her difficulty in trying to get it through parliament on a third vote even before the speaker ruled that it must be substantially changed, it is not clear how May can avert this without asking fellow leaders for more time.

ALL DEPENDS ON MAY

Leaders expect to discuss such an extension at the two-day summit starting on Thursday afternoon. But if May has yet to make a concrete proposal on her next move then, then the summit can do little more than outline possible steps — such as a readiness to give her a couple of months, or maybe longer.

“If there is no move from London, the leaders can also decide to wait,” said Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders. “It really depends on what May will say at the summit.”

Diplomats said member states were still discussing options for extension — possibly only for two to three months, if May persuades them she can clinch a deal at home, or for much longer if May accepts that radical reworking is needed. But these would come with conditions and might not be agreed until next week.

Merkel said there was “far too much in flux” to forecast the outcome of the summit, but her foreign minister, Heiko Maas, told reporters in Finland: “If more time is needed, it’s always better to do another round than a no-deal Brexit.”

EU diplomats say it is highly probable that leaders will unanimously support some sort of extension rather than see Britain lurch out of the bloc in 10 days’ time — even though some governments are starting to argue for ending the uncertainty and trusting to arrangements already put in place to mitigate the effects of a sudden, immediate exit.

Aides to French President Emmanuel Macron, a powerful voice on the Council alongside Merkel, say the onus is on Britain to say what it would do with more time.

“This uncertainty is unacceptable,” his EU affairs minister Nathalie Loiseau said in Brussels on Tuesday.

“Grant an extension? What for? Time is not a solution, it’s a method — if there’s an objective and a strategy. And it has to come from London.”

(Writing by Alastair Macdonald; @macdonaldrtr; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: OANN

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British PM May says deal within grasp, Brexit delay won’t solve crisis

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May attends Arab league and EU summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May attends a summit between Arab league and European Union member states, in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, February 24, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

February 25, 2019

By Elizabeth Piper and Aidan Lewis

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May said a timely exit for Britain from the European Union is “within our grasp” and insisted on Monday that delaying Brexit would be no way to solve the impasse in parliament over the departure.

Her comments came as the opposition Labour Party said it would support calls for a second referendum on Brexit, a potentially significant policy shift that could further damage May’s hopes of getting a divided parliament to approve her exit deal.

May said she wanted Brexit to happen as planned on March 29 and shrugged off expectations that she will be forced to delay to avoid leaving the EU in a disorderly way without an agreement.

With the crisis going down to the wire, May is struggling to get the kind of changes from the EU she says she needs to get her divorce deal through a divided parliament and smooth the country’s biggest policy shift in more than 40 years.

May, in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for an EU/Arab League summit, met European leaders to push her efforts to make her deal more attractive to parliament, where frustrated lawmakers are gearing up to try to wrest control of Brexit from the government.

While she said EU leaders had given her a sense that a deal could be won, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said they risked “sleep walking” into a no-deal Brexit and European Council President Donald Tusk described any delay as “a rational decision”.

For now though, May is sticking firmly to the script, saying extending the negotiating period with the EU, which was triggered by Article 50 and which ends on March 29, would not solve the Brexit problem.

“What it does is precisely what the word ‘delay’ says. It just delays the point at which you come to that decision,” she told reporters at the summit. “And I think that any extension of Article 50, in that sense, isn’t addressing the issue. We have (a deal) within our grasp.”

May has promised to bring back a vote on her divorce settlement to parliament by March 12.

Her chances of winning any such vote were damaged later in the day when the main opposition Labour Party said it would support proposals for a second public vote to stop May’s Brexit deal if its own plan for Britain’s EU exit is rejected.

“We are committed to also putting forward or supporting an amendment in favor of a public vote to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit being forced on the country,” Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn was due to tell his party on Monday, according to his office.

The move could attract lawmakers who would have backed May’s deal purely to avoid a no-deal exit, but who would prefer a second referendum.

It was not clear whether there is a majority in parliament supporting another public vote, which would require a Brexit delay to allow for time to organize it. Britons voted by 52-48 percent in favor of leaving the EU in a referendum in 2016.

DELAY

Earlier, one UK official indicated delay could be an option if lawmakers refuse to pass May’s deal.

Tobias Ellwood, a defense minister, also told BBC radio: “If we cannot get this deal across the line, we are facing the prospect of having to extend.”

The EU has said it is willing to grant an extension if there is evidence parliament could pass the deal. Lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected May’s deal last month.

Tusk said it was clear there was no majority in the British parliament for a deal, telling a news conference:

“I believe that in the situation we are in, an extension would be a rational decision, but Prime Minister May still believes she will be able to avoid this scenario.”

The EU has said any agreement on a revised Brexit deal must be sealed by the bloc’s summit of national leaders on March 21-22 at the latest and May suggested that parliament could approve the deal before the bloc signed off on it.

‘FAITH’ IN POLITICS

A no-deal Brexit is seen as potentially hugely damaging to the Britain’s economy, the world’s fifth largest.

While sterling rallied on the suggestion of a delay, May has to tread carefully, with euroskeptics poised to leap on anything they see as an attempt to thwart Brexit.

“I think it would be disastrous if we had a delay,” said Bernard Jenkin, a Conservative pro-Brexit lawmaker. “I think that faith in our politics – what faith is left in it – would evaporate.”

May decided to push back a vote on her deal to give more time for talks aimed at securing changes to the Irish backstop, an insurance policy that would prevent the return of a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland.

A spokeswoman for Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, said progress was being made. Britain’s Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay and Attorney General Geoffrey Cox will hold more talks in Brussels on Tuesday.

Several lawmakers have proposals that involve delaying Brexit to win more time to break the parliamentary deadlock.

Labour lawmaker Yvette Cooper has called on parliament to back her bid to seek to force the government to hand power to parliament if no deal has been approved by March 13 and to offer lawmakers the option of requesting an extension.

Two Conservatives have offered another plan that could be more attractive to the government. That would delay Brexit to May 23, the start of the European Parliament elections, if lawmakers have not approved a deal by March 12.

A government official said the proposal could be considered “helpful”.

(Additional reporting by William James in London and Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Frances Kerry)

Source: OANN

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WSJ: AMI Puts National Enquirer Up for Sale

American Media Inc. has put the National Enquirer up for sale, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The news follows a rocky few years for the tabloid publication, which two months ago was accused by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos of attempting to extort him.

American Media CEO David Pecker confirmed the plan after The Washington Post reported that the company had come under “intense pressure” to part ways with the Enquirer.

“We have been keenly focused on leveraging the popularity of our celebrity glossy, teen and active lifestyle brands while developing new and robust platforms including broadcast and audio programming,” American Media President and Chief Executive David Pecker said in a statement. “Because of this focus, we feel the future opportunities with the tabloids can be best exploited by a different ownership.”

American Media is also looking to sell off the Globe and National Examiner.

The National Enquirer has been in the spotlight since it admitted to paying $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal to prevent her from “influencing the election” with her allegation that she had an affair with President Donald Trump.

The Bezos story, though, was the final sticking point.

“The Trump thing was an issue, and [Anthony Melchiorre] was really disgusted by the Bezos reporting,” a source told the Post.

Melchiorre controls the $4 billion hedge fund Chatham Asset Management, which holds an 80 percent stake in American Media Inc.

Source: NewsMax America

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Washington Examiner journalist on Barr’s ‘spying’ allegations: What AG said is ‘a fact’

Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York said Wednesday that Attorney General William Barr was speaking in "fact" when he said he thought federal authorities had spied on the Trump presidential campaign.

“It's set off this this firestorm of reaction. But what the attorney general said was accurate when he said, ‘I think spying did occur,’ and the question whether ...  it was adequately predicated,” York said on “Special Report.”

COMEY MEMOS CONTAINED FAR MORE CLASSIFIED INFO THAN PREVIOUSLY KNOWN

“And the fact is, the FBI wiretapped Carter Page, they monitored his electronic communications. You can look at the warrant application; it was all about the campaign. This is just actually a fact.”

"I think spying did occur," Barr said Wednesday during a hearing before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee. "The question is whether it was adequately predicated. …Spying on a political campaign is a big deal."

Barr later clarified: "I am not saying that improper surveillance occurred; I’m saying that I am concerned about it and looking into it, that’s all.”

Washington Post opinion writer Charles Lane said the use of the word “spying” was a mistake that Barr made that triggered everyone.

FBI BLAMES SYSTEM-WIDE SOFTWARE GLITCH FOR MISSING TEXTS; STRZOK'S TEXTS FROM MUELLER PROBE TOTALLY WIPED

“Bill Barr is a very seasoned experienced lawyer who got into a little trouble today by not using lawyerly words. ‘Spying’ is an inflammatory term that kind of gets people triggered and if he had said a word like surveillance which is what he reverted to later we might not be having this discussion,” Lane told Bret Baier.

“So some kind of contact or surveillance or observation was going on of these people in Trump's orbit and to call it ‘spying’ I think was an indiscretion that triggered everybody.”

Fox News' Gregg Re and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Veteran Reporter Woodward Calls For FBI, CIA To Be Investigated Over Steele Dossier

Bob Woodward, the reporter who broke open the Watergate scandal, has called for the FBI and CIA to be investigated regarding the agencies’ handling of the debunked dossier that formed the basis of the Mueller investigation of the Trump campaign.

During an interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace, Woodward declared that the dossier authored by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele “has got a lot of garbage in it”.

“What I found out recently, which was really quite surprising, the dossier, which really has got a lot of garbage in it and Mueller found that to be the case, early in building the intelligence community assessment on Russian interference, in an early draft, they actually put the dossier on page two in kind of a breakout box.”

“I think it was the CIA pushing this. Real intelligence experts looked at this and said no, this is not intelligence, this is garbage and they took it out,” Woodward added.

“But in this process, the idea that they would include something like that in one of the great stellar intelligence assessments, as Mueller also found out, is highly questionable.” he added, saying that it “Needs to be investigated.”

Last week, President Trump slammed the FBI, stating that the intelligence agency conspired against his presidential campaign.

Trump addressed the ‘fake’ dossier, which was funded in part by Fusion GPS, a political intelligence firm working for the DNC, calling it a “total fraud on your President and the American people!”

He also took aim at “Crooked Hillary” noting that eleven payments were made to the former to British spy Steele by the FBI in 2016.

Judicial Watch is suing for communication and payment records between the FBI, Steele, and his private firm, Orbis Business Intelligence.

Source: InfoWars

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Joe Biden’s brain surgeon said his former patient is “totally in the clear” as speculation over the candidate’s health — with Biden possibly becoming the oldest president in U.S. history — is likely to become a campaign issue.

The former vice president, who had been perceived by many as the strongest potential contender for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, formally announced his candidacy Thursday.

But Biden’s age – 76 – is expected to become a source of attacks from a younger generation of Democrats not because of obvious generational differences, but possibly for actual health concerns if Biden gets into office.

WHY THE MEDIA ARE CONVINCED JOE BIDEN WILL IMPLODE

Biden himself agreed last year that “it’s totally legitimate” for people to ask questions about his health if he decides to run for president, given his medical history — which has included brain surgery in 1988.

“I think they’re gonna judge me on my vitality,” Biden told “CBS This Morning.” “Can I still run up the steps of Air Force Two? Am I still in good shape? Am I – do I have all my faculties? Am I energetic? I think it’s totally legitimate people ask those questions.”

“I think they’re gonna judge me on my vitality. …  I think it’s totally legitimate [that] people ask those questions.”

— Joe Biden

But Dr. Neal Kassell, the neurosurgeon who operated on Biden for an aneurysm three decades ago, told the Washington Examiner that Biden appears to be “totally in the clear” — and even joked that the operation made Biden “better than how he was.”

“Joe Biden of all of the politicians in Washington is the only one that I’m certain has a brain, because I have seen it,” Kassell said. “That’s more than I can say about all the other candidates or the incumbents.”

“Joe Biden of all of the politicians in Washington is the only one that I’m certain has a brain, because I have seen it.”

— Dr. Neal Kassell

BIDEN’S CLAIM HE DIDN’T WANT OBAMA TO ENDORSE TRIGGERS MOCKERY

At the same time, however, Biden hasn’t been forthcoming about his health at least since 2008 when he released his medical records as a vice presidential candidate. The disclosure that time revealed some fairly minor issues such as an irregular heartbeat in addition to detailing previous operations, including removing a benign polyp during a colonoscopy in 1996, the outlet reported.

It remains unclear if Biden had more aneurysms. Some medical experts say that people who have had an aneurysm can have another one.

An aneurysm, or a weakening of an artery wall, can lead to a rupture and internal bleeding, potentially placing a patient’s life in jeopardy.

Biden won’t be the only Democrat grappling with old age. Sen. Bernie Sanders, another 2020 frontrunner, is currently 77 years old and agreed with Biden last year that their ages will be an issue in the race.

“It’s part of a discussion, but it has to be part of an overall view of what somebody is and what somebody has accomplished,” Sanders told Politico.

“Look, you’ve got people who are 50 years of age who are not well, right? You’ve got people who are 90 years of age who are going to work every day, doing excellent work. And obviously, age is a factor. But it depends on the overall health and wellbeing of the individual.”

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Sanders released his medical records in 2016, with a Senate physician saying in a letter that the senator was “in overall very good health.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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German carmaker Daimler endured a weak start to the year, echoing troubles at other major manufacturers, as sales in the big Chinese market stuttered.

The company said Friday that its net income fell to 2.1 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in the first quarter from 2.3 billion euros during the same period a year earlier, while revenue dipped to 39.7 billion euros from 39.8 billion euros.

Vehicle sales fell 4% to 773,800 units, with a double-digit percentage drop in China offsetting gains in other markets like the U.S. and Europe.

The company said there were also problems with high inventories and bottlenecks in the supply chain.

Chairman Dieter Zetsche said that “we cannot and will not be satisfied with this — as expected — moderate start to the year.”

Source: Fox News World

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Cambodian authorities have ordered a one-hour reduction in the length of school days because of concerns that students and teachers may fall ill from a prolonged heat wave.

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said in an announcement seen Friday that the shortened hours will remain in effect until the rainy season starts, which usually occurs in May. The current heat wave, in which temperatures are regularly reaching as high as 41 Celsius (106 Fahrenheit), is one of the longest in memory.

Most schools in Cambodia lack air conditioning, prompting concern that temperatures inside classrooms could rise to unhealthy levels.

School authorities were instructed to watch for symptoms of heat stroke and urge pupils to drink more water.

The new hours cut 30 minutes off the beginning of the school day and 30 minutes off the end.

School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.

Source: Fox News World

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Explosions have rocked Britain’s largest steel plant, injuring two people and shaking nearby homes.

South Wales Police say the incident at the Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot was reported at about 3:35 a.m. Friday (22:35 EDT Thursday). The explosions touched off small fires, which are under control. Two workers suffered minor injuries and all staff members have been accounted for.

Police say early indications are that the explosions were caused by a train used to carry molten metal into the plant. Tata Steel says its personnel are working with emergency services at the scene.

Local lawmaker Stephen Kinnock says the incident raises concerns about safety.

He tweeted: “It could have been a lot worse … @TataSteelEurope must conduct a full review, to improve safety.”

Source: Fox News World

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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