Comstock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- It was to have been the dawn of a new era, private companies launching into space and on to the International Space Station.
The first such launch was set for before dawn this morning, and it came tantalizingly close.
But the SpaceX rocket never got off the ground.
The launch was aborted just half a second before liftoff.
It was so close, that even NASA announcer George Diller was caught by surprise.
“Three, two, one, zero and liftoff,” said Diller. Then he realized the rocket was still on the pad, “We’ve had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur.” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell blamed high combustion pressure in engine no. 5, one of nine engines needed for liftoff.
Onboard computers detected the problem, and shut everything down.
Shotwell said engineers will now being trouble shooting to find and fix the problem, and switch out the engine if necessary.
The next possible launch date is next Tuesday, May 22.
Despite the disappointment of today’s near-launch, Shotwell insisted, “This is not a failure. We aborted with purpose”, she said, “It would be a failure if we were to have lifted off with an engine trending in this direction.”
SpaceX is one of a handful of private companies racing to get into space, hoping to send cargo and eventually astronauts to the space station for NASA.
With the space shuttles parked in museums and NASA relying on the Russians for space transportation, the agency is looking to private companies to fill in the gap.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told ABC News, these commercial companies are “now going to be primarily responsible for building and operating, and we’re going to buy the service from them or purchase the service from them.”
NASA has shelled out $396 million to SpaceX for test flights, like this mission. It also has a $1.6 billion contract with the company for 12 cargo flights to the space station.
SpaceX is the dream of billionaire Elon Musk, who made his fortune creating PayPal.
He began his space efforts a decade ago.
Before the launch he was both realistic and optimistic.
Musk told ABC News, “I think we are more likely than not going to succeed in this mission but it is a test flight. And there is certainly any number of things that could go wrong. And so we may not actually. We have 2 more flights for later this year. So I’m confident that one of those flights will make it.”
Peter Foley/Bloomberg via Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Tax revenue from Facebook's $104 billion IPO may not fill California's $16 billion budget deficit, but it will likely give a boost to Silicon Valley's already inflated real estate prices.
The median home value in Menlo Park, Calif., the home of Facebook's headquarters, is $1 million, up 4.5 percent year-over-year according to the Zillow Home Value Index.
Old and new Facebook workers are buying up property in the Bay Area, adding to the demand from tech workers at nearby companies like Google, Zynga and LinkedIn.
In the nearby town of Cupertino, home of Apple Inc., the median home value is also $1 million, up 1.6 percent year-over-year, according to Zillow.
Around the time that Facebook announced its IPO and started its road show, there was an influx of multi-million dollar real estate coming onto the market in Silicon Valley, said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries.
"Sellers clearly want to take advantage of those reaping rewards from this historic financial event," Humphries said.
Home prices have already been rising in many high-end neighborhoods and cities in the area, and Humphries said he expects they will continue to increase as the young Facebook IPO beneficiaries look to make moves in the real estate market.
Michael Dreyfus of Dreyfus Properties specializes in residential real estate in the towns of Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Woodside, Portola Valley and Atherton.
"There's no way there's not going to be an effect," Dreyfus said of Facebook's IPO and the local real estate market.
He said he knows sellers who have waited for two years, not yet listing their homes in anticipation of the IPO.
While Facebook's headquarters are in Menlo Park, Dreyfus said the hottest area is in neighboring Palo Alto.
"Palo Alto is ground zero for all of this, particularly because the younger money has always preferred Palo Alto because it's a more urban environment," Dreyfus said.
Downtown Palo Alto, by Stanford University, has numerous coffee shops, a movie theater, restaurants and bookstores.
"The schools are excellent, you can send your kid to public school and you are in the mix," Dreyfus said.
Dreyfus said the dotcom bubble and Google's IPO have educated property owners into becoming "savvy sellers."
"They've seen this song before, they think they can play it, and they may be right," said Dreyfus, who knows sellers who have held off and not responded immediately to increasing demand.
One reason for sellers' patience may be that companies and some regulations prevent some stockholders from selling their shares until a specified time. That "lockup" period means Facebook employees won't be using stock proceeds to buy homes in cash just yet. The period may be 90 days for institutional buyers and 180 days for employees. Companies like Zynga and LinkedIn have initiated more than one lockup period. Some lockup periods can encourage employees not to sell stock for as long as a year.
While most of his clients have been established executives who have moved to California to work at tech companies, the homes Dreyfus sold to Facebook employees in the past two years tend to have been to young families.
"I'm 50, so they all seem really young," he said.
When asked if he was participating in any Facebook employee-related sales on Friday, Dreyfus said one of his two offices was planning to host a party celebrating the IPO's completion.
"We're tired of hearing about it," Dreyfus said. "Imagine that every real estate conversation has worked Facebook in."
Though grateful for the boost from Facebook and every other tech economy, he hopes people will focus on living "fundamentals."
"The story is about all the companies in the Valley and how well they're all doing," he said. "And we want everyone to take a deep breath because we are really fortunate to live in this place."
Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- The Obama administration’s announcement that it is suspending sanctions on Myanmar, allowing American companies to invest in the formerly rogue nation, has received praise from the business community and skepticism from human rights groups.
Under Myanmar’s current president Thein Sein, the country once considered one of the world’s most isolated, has undergone remarkable progress toward democracy. In April it held its first parliamentary elections in more than 20 years. Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy activist who spent decades under house arrest, was elected to parliament. As a result of the reforms, the United States is appointing its first ambassador, Derek Mitchell, to the country in more than two decades, along with easing some of the sanctions.
After meeting with the foreign minister of Myanmar, which the administration refers to as Burma, Secretary Clinton told reporters that the U.S. is suspending sanctions, but not lifting them all together. “We will be keeping relevant laws on the books as an insurance policy,” said Clinton. “But our goal and our commitment is to move as rapidly as we can to expand business and investment opportunities.” Among the sectors considered most opportune for investment are agricultural, minerals, and oil and gas.
Clinton stressed that the emphasis will be on responsible investment, and that U.S. companies will be held to “best practice” standards, representing transparency and respect for worker’s rights. Senior administration officials admit that those standards are still being hashed out, and will not be legally enforceable by U.S. law.
Human rights groups complain that it’s still too early to ease sanctions, and that the U.S. needed to establish a legally-binding conduct before the announcement. Activists express concern particularly about the oil and gas sector, which is owned and operated by some of the country’s top military leaders.
“This is a big problem,” John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, told ABC News. “There are certain activities that are not going to benefit reform and not going to benefit Burmese citizens; that will just benefit the wealthiest, most powerful.”
The State Department maintains that individual “spoilers” and “bad actors” who are found to be prohibiting democratic reforms will still be sanctioned, but in a recent joint letter to President Barack Obama, Human Rights Watch and other organizations noted that the current U.S. Treasury Department list of Special Designated Nationals, individuals and companies implicated in human rights abuses in Burma, had not been updated since 2009.
“Folks gotta’ remember this is … a country that has no independent judiciary system,” said Sifton. Myanmar tied with Afghanistan as the second most corrupt country in the world last year, according to the corruption-tracking group Transparency International. “The corruption is rampant,” said Sifton. “The revenue is completely off the books.”
Human rights groups aren’t opposed to easing some restrictions as a way to help the country continue to progress, but are concerned that, like many countries without strong governance, a boom in oil investment could end up being more of a resource curse for the impoverished nation than a help.
“There are things that can be done that don’t directly benefit the military,” said Sifton. “Invest in agriculture, trading and financial services. But allowing in oil and gas companies is not one of those things.”
American businesses have already expressed interest in doing business in the Asian country, say administration officials. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Trade Council and the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council issued a joint statement praising the administration’s decision. The groups, whose membership includes some of America’s biggest oil and gas companies such as Exxon, said they support the opening of all of Myanmar’s economic sectors. Australia, the European Union and Canada have all made similar decisions regarding lifting sanctions. China also has a long history of trade with the country, even before the reforms took place.
“A situation where American companies are allowed to invest in certain sectors while excluding others will not prevent those sectors from being developed in Myanmar,” the statement read. “It will simply ensure that our competitors fill the void, as they are already doing, and that jobs which could be given to American workers will go elsewhere.”
Aung San Suu Kyi says the United States is right to suspend the harsh restrictions against her country, but warns that caution is needed.
“This is a possible first step,” said Aung San Suu Kyi via Skype at the Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday. ”I sometimes feel that people are too optimistic about the scene in Burma. You have to remember that the democratization process is not irreversible.”
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(DALLAS) -- Five people in Texas said a biohazard removal company wildly overbilled them for cleaning up after their loved ones' deaths, charging tens of thousands of dollars for jobs that were quoted at a fraction of the price.
"They indicate to them the bill will be $3,000 or $4,000 and then it becomes $40,000 or $50,000. That's what you call bait and switch," said Ted Lyon, an attorney who is representing five Texas families who say they were unfairly billed by Aftermath, an Illinois-based biohazard removal company.
Laura McGowan, a spokesperson for Aftermath, defended the company's practices and said a designated family member was constantly updated on additional costs by a supervisor.
"We give them a transparent pricing sheet, and we have it spelled out detail by detail," she said. "We have to make sure we're preserving the health and safety of people in that home. We are of the opinion if another company is doing the job for $2,000, then they're not doing it right."
After paramedics and police leave the scene of a home suicide or another unexpected passing, a grieving family member is often left with a second trauma -- calling in a biohazard recovery team to decontaminate their home and scrub away the visible signs of heartbreak. The crews arrive hours after a death in their protective suits, ready to sop up tissue, cut away blood-stained carpet and remove the bits of skull. They interact with families in their most fragile state, said Mark Fagala, who owns his own North Carolina biohazard removal firm and has 25 years of experience.
"The situation itself is vulnerable and it takes integrity on our part," Fagala said.
But the lawsuit alleges Aftermath acted with "deception and false representations."
Ricardo Donato, who is one of the five people suing Aftermath, told ABC affiliate WFAA the hours after his son's suicide were a blur. "He showed me the contract; it was several pages long," Donato said.
He signed it and was quoted $4,000 to $5,000 and told his homeowner's insurance company would cover it. Weeks later he received a call from his carrier refusing to pay the $22,019.58 bill. Included in the bill were false charges for supplies and labor hours for employees who established a pattern of working only 15 minutes every hour, the lawsuit claimed.
Donato said he has been threatened with a lien on his home. Three of his fellow plaintiffs have had liens placed on their homes or their loved one's home, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the District Court of Dallas County.
"It's horrible because they relive this whole tragic accident, this whole event because it's traumatic to them when they receive this huge bill," Lyon said. "Our clients are not wealthy. They are middle class people."
McGowan said all five plaintiffs initially gave Aftermath stellar reviews.
McGowan added employees of Aftermath are required to take frequent breaks because of OSHA heat stress requirements and try to fill the rest of the billed hour doing paperwork. But with jobs stretching 10 to 12 hours, that can add up to a lot of sitting around.
Rich Ross, president of the American Bio-Recovery Association, an industry trade group of which Aftermath is not a member, said taking breaks and billing for them is not standard.
"A lot of things they're doing, they're justified in. Then there are things they do where we in the industry sit back and shake our heads and say this isn't right," he said.
For now, the families faced with sky-high bills will have to wait for their day in court, said Lyon, their attorney.
"They're stuck until they get this case resolved," he said. "That's the bad thing because this company can sit there and basically they don't have to worry. They are just holding these people up."
Facebook(NEW YORK) -- Facebook’s stock market debut seems to be creating a frenzy everywhere but at Facebook.
Shares closed at $38.23 after fluctuating between $40 and $42 for most of the day. Gizmodo reported shares were trading at a record-breaking 2.7 million per second within the first 30 seconds of trading.
But after founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and a throng of cheering employees rang the Nasdaq opening bell from the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., at 9:30 a.m. ET Friday, the campus became a ghost town.
Nightline anchor Bill Weir talked with Justin Mitchell, a Facebook engineer, and Donna Gutman, who worked in Facebook’s user operations, in New York City’s Times Square shortly after trading began. Both said they had been with the company for more than four years but had recently quit, taking stock options with them.
On Thursday night, Facebook priced its initial public offering at $38 a share, selling $16 billion worth in equity and valuing the company at $104 billion. It’s the largest tech IPO of all time.
All Facebook employees are stock holders, Mitchell told Weir. So why isn’t he out buying a Ferrari?
“It’s not the company culture to go out and celebrate this type of stuff,” Mitchell said. “The culture of the company is very much of not showing off money, not being ostentatious but instead, really just making good products, and that comes from the top.”
One of the big questions is, now that Facebook has gone public, will it have to tailor user experience to meet shareholders’ expectations. But Mitchell said he thought Facebook’s IPO filing would have little effect on how it does business.
“My hunch is that it’s not going to change the company culture that much,” he said. “Once we filed for the IPO people put up signs that said, ‘Stay focused, Keep shipping.’ I think it’s that type of mentality that you’ll see continue on in the future.”
Thursday night, Facebook celebrated its newfound wealth with a wild bash at company headquarters that only Facebook could throw -- a “Hackathon,” an all-night, a code-writing “rager,” where Facebook employees worked on their own special projects until the morning light. They do one every couple of months, according to the company’s blog. Those projects are what Facebook deems important, Gutman said.
“I think that the company needs to keep doing what its doing and the work people did last night shows that’s what people are focused on,” Gutman said.
Zef Nikolla/Facebook(NEW YORK) -- Despite the much anticipated Facebook IPO couldn't help stocks Friday. It was a bad end to a dead-end week on Wall Street.
The Dow closed down 59 points at 12,383 -- its 12th day of losses in 13 trading sessions. The Nasdaq lost 27 points to close at 2,787, while the S&P gave up eight points Friday and closed at 1,297.
The IPO everyone had waited for -- Facebook closed at $38.23, gaining just 23 cents.
After some technical hiccups, trading in Facebook's blockbuster IPO officially opened to an eager public Friday at about $42.05 a share and drifted lower by mid-day. Shares were trading below $39 around 3:05 p.m. eastern time, just over the offer price of $38.
Earlier on Friday, the shares nearly dropped to its offer price, lower than what many analysts expected.
Jim Krapfel, IPO analyst with investment firm Morningstar, said he was surprised to see Facebook only up a few percentage points given the pent-up retail demand for its shares.
"Clearly concerns regarding the company's valuation, increased insider selling, and GM news are weighing on the stock. Weakness in the stock market over the last several days is also likely playing a significant role," he said.
General Motors said this week it was pulling about $10 million of advertising from Facebook.
Out of four recent technology IPOs -- those of LinkedIn, Zynga, Pandora and Groupon -- only LinkedIn has recently traded above its IPO price. LinkedIn's IPO price last May was $45 a share. Shares of LinkedIn were trading down around 5.8 percent on Friday late afternoon at $98.83.
A trend of other high growth tech offerings show that "the more the stock goes up in the first day, the more it declines in the ensuing weeks and months," he said.
EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/GettyImages(NEW YORK) -- After some technical hiccups, trading in Facebook's blockbuster IPO officially opened to an eager public Friday at about $42.05 a share, but the price dropped below $40, lower than what many analysts expected.
Shares were virtually unchanged from the offer price at $38 at 11:51 a.m. eastern time, after rising 11 percent at the open.
Jim Krapfel, IPO analyst with investment firm, Morningstar, said he was surprised to see Facebook only up a few percentage points given the amount of pent up retail demand for its shares.
"Clearly concerns regarding the company's valuation, increased insider selling, and GM news are weighing on the stock. Weakness in the stock market over the last several days is also likely playing a significant role," he said.
General Motors said this week it was pulling about $10 million worth of advertising from Facebook.
But that didn't stop Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, and COO Sheryl Sandberg from celebrating IPO day. The two executives gathered with a throng of cheering employees at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., to ring the Nasdaq's opening bell at 9:30 a.m. eastern time ahead of the social media network's long-awaited IPO.
Trading of the company's shares, designated with the ticker symbol, "FB," was scheduled to begin around 10:45 a.m. eastern time, but began almost an hour later because Facebook's underwriter, Morgan Stanley, was reportedly having trouble changing orders.
With a large monitor and stage set up outdoors in "Hacker Square," instead of visiting Nasdaq's New York exchange, hundreds of employees gathered in the early hours of the morning in California. Many of them had participated in Facebook's 31st "hackathon," a company tradition described as an overnight sleepover that encourages employees to work on anything but their normal work duties.
Nasdaq's CEO, Bob Greifeld, stood beaming next to Zuckerberg, 28, sans necktie, donning a t-shirt and clapping along with the other employees.
It was a long-awaited moment for the eight-year-old company that started in the Harvard University dormitory, Kirkland House.
Not to abandon Wall Street completely, Facebook CFO David Ebersman reportedly was at the Nasdaq in New York City during the opening bell. Instead of scrolling the usual stock prices of the day, Nasdaq's digital billboard at its market center in Times Square this morning read, "Nasdaq Welcomes Facebook."
On Thursday night, Facebook priced its initial public offering at $38 a share, raising $16 billion and valuing the company at $104 billion. The company said it made $3.7 billion in revenue in 2011.
The company is offering 421.2 million shares of common A-class stock, which includes 180 million new shares sold by the company and 241.2 million shares sold by existing shareholders, such as early employees.
The biggest IPO for a U.S. technology firm has gotten the attention of everyone from high school students to Wall Street professionals, many of whom are likely among the 900 million monthly users of the social media site.
Out of four recent technology IPOs -- those of LinkedIn, Zynga, Pandora and Groupon -- only LinkedIn has recently traded above its IPO price. LinkedIn's IPO price last May was $45 a share. Shares of LinkedIn were trading down around 0.36 percent on Friday morning at $104.
While the IPO will make a number of billionaires out of early Facebook employees and investors, Facebook's lead underwriter, the investment bank Morgan Stanley, will also come out a winner by the fees it will earn. The investment bank determined who got shares of the company before shares are sold to the larger public on Friday.
Krapfel said the media hype and investor buildup are to be expected, despite Facebook's investment risks.
"It's the most hotly anticipated IPO of all time," Krapfel said. "Most of the U.S. population that uses the internet uses Facebook so there's no surprise there would be a lot of interest in the IPO. Certainly with this much hype, there's a lot of demand from investors."
A trend of other high growth tech offerings show that "the more the stock goes up in the first day, the more it declines in the ensuing weeks and months," he said.
Morningstar has valued the company at $32 a share but Krapfel said he expects the stock to trade into $50 and above.
ABC News(JACKSON, Mich.) -- A Michigan teen found a finger tip in an Arby’s roast beef sandwich after he spit out a bite that he said was rubbery and hard to chew.
Ryan Hart, 14, said he ordered the sandwich last Friday at the drive-thru window of at a Jackson, Mich., Arby’s franchise.
“I was like, ‘That [has] to be a finger.’ I was about to puke. … It was just nasty,” Ryan told the Jackson Citizen Patriot.
An employee lost approximately one inch of her finger while operating a meat slicer.
Employees continued to fill orders until they were made aware of the fleshy find.
“Upon learning of the incident, the franchisee’s restaurant team shut down food production and thoroughly cleaned and sanitized the restaurant. The franchisee fully cooperated with the local Health Department, and the restaurant was given the approval to remain open,” said John Gray, vice president of communications at Arby’s, in a statement.
Gray said Arby’s is investigating the event and has been in touch with its 66,000 employees to reinforce safety protocols.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- It's gearing up to be a busy summer travel season: Airlines for America predicts there will be more than 206 million people flying this summer, and that's only on U.S carriers. That breaks down to about 2.24 million passengers per day.
With all those people passing through airports, many of them infrequent fliers, there's sure to be plenty of angst -- from lost bags, lost children and parking questions, to rental car inquires, flight delays and cancellations. So who can you turn to for help?
Your friendly airport greeters, of course. You'll recognize them by the white hats at Denver International, or the red vests at Calgary International in Canada. And, very soon, the pins on their clothing at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
JFK airport rolls out a new program on May 22, just in time for the busy summer travel season. Called Edge4Vets N.I.C.E. Corps, the program plans to use the skills of military veterans to help alleviate passenger frustrations at the airport. It takes airport employees who are also veterans and gives them N.I.C.E. (Neutralize Irritations Customers Experience) training.
The pilot program was designed by Tom Murphy, director of the Human Resiliency Institute at Fordham University. He said the program would initially be in Terminal 4, and has 30 trained problem solvers ready to help.
"What travelers want most," he said, "is for someone to care when things go wrong. They want someone who will step up and help."
Veterans employed at a variety of airport companies -- even airlines like JetBlue, Delta and American Airlines, and agencies like the Transportation Security Administration -- have signed up for the training. The idea, Murphy said, is for veterans already involved in the pilot program to spot other airline employees going the extra mile and then report it. Those employees will then be recognized and rewarded for their helpfulness.
Murphy said that in time he hopes the program will take on a life of its own, resulting in a more positive airport experience for employees and travelers alike.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(MENLO PARK, Calif.) -- Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, and COO Sheryl Sandberg gathered with a throng of cheering employees at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on Friday to ring the Nasdaq's opening bell ahead of the social media network's long-awaited IPO.
With a large monitor and stage set up outdoors, instead of visiting Nasdaq's New York exchange, hundreds of employees gathered early Friday morning in California. Many of them had participated in Facebook's "hackathon," a company tradition described as an overnight sleepover that encourages employees to work on anything but their normal work duties.
Not to abandon Wall Street completely, Facebook CFO David Ebersman was at the Nasdaq in New York City during the opening bell.
On Thursday night, Facebook priced its initial public offering at $38 a share, raising $16 billion and valuing the company at $104 billion. The company is offering 421.2 million shares of common A-class stock, which includes 180 million new shares sold by the company and 241.2 million shares sold by existing shareholders.
