uses Russian-made RD-181 rocket engines in place of AJ26 engines, which were implicated in the October 2014 

http://www.space.com/34416-stunning-antares-rocket-return-to-flight-launch.html

The other Tesla news for this week is it's operating profit for Model S activities : $22K USD per car ( ~ 27% ) on a $2.3B turnover. So some $600M was used to retire debt, some current and some future. Careful with the wording of reports though, much word-smithing and deliberate fudging of traditional/accepted accounting definitions from people who really should know better : gross is not the same as nett, capital investment is not an operating loss, profit for a single product is not the company profit, etc.

Current stockholders equity is ~ $1B on ~ $7B liabililty ie. about ~ $8B assets ( book value of course ). It has the typical problem of start-ups with such gearing : their stock is usually shorted in the immediate term ( especially if one has inside knowledge with regard to timing of outlays ). There are no earnings per share yet as no dividends have been distributed and probably won't until ~ 2020. If you want to buy then do so for the longer term eg 5+ years.

I've been following the installation of charge points in Victoria ( Australia ) : only five superchargers ( along the main highway to Sydney ) but around 50+ at destination ( typically higher-end resorts with overnite charging added to the accommodation rates ). So to have such destination charging at a motel that you own then "Qualified properties will receive their first two Tesla wall connectors free of charge as long as they are installed in visible or convenient locations. " The electricity isn't free, of course .......

Cheers, Mike.

The 'destination' chargers are slow/overniters ie. not for the 20-odd minute fill-ups that the superchargers which are owned etc by Tesla.

Also I forgot ( what your article mentions ) that the forward sales value on their order books is about twice the company's current capital value. While a pie-in-the-sky calculation, if you translate via present production profit then you have repaid half the asset outlay existing at the moment. So the next question is how quickly can you make all those cars ..... 

..... while all the customers/investors may be labelled as fools, the fact is that Tesla continues to raise money via shareholdings or sales despite having almost no traditional advertising. This is annoying more than a few pundits. As an investment comparison Telsa is risk rated in the category of say, new mining schemes and for much the same reasons : high asset investment now and the profits later on ( medium to long term ) but only if a future market deems value in what you dig up then. Short answer : don't invest more than you are prepared to lose, at best in the near term you'll get $1 in $7 back if they go belly up.

Cheers, Mike.

( edit ) Of course the other trick is ".... in a gold rush, sell spades .... " ie. bet on the inputs. Anyone for Lithium stocks .... :-0

Well there's a lithium rush DownUnda and it turns out there are gobs of places to find it in. Sediments abound .... it's an ancient continent & ex-inland sea. As usual it depends on extraction costs vs. price to determine the game. Some of the big miners with existing holdings/leases for other metals ( iron, copper, aluminium, nickel, silver ..... ) are even raking over their tailings dumps ! Fortunately some geological locations happen to already provide sufficient concentrations. Given that lithium is way less toxic* than the heavier metals, not much, if any, needs to be outlayed on that ground. One warning ought be said : the quality/purity of the product may well outweigh quantity in the market place when it comes to a sale. Consumers don't tolerate burning batteries.

Cheers, Mike.

* Meaning that when not deliberately ingested in bio-available form eg. lithium carbonate on medical advice.