GNO, Inc. Sunday Night Highlight – GNO in Space 💫

Nearly every U.S. manned space flight in history has been built in New Orleans, and that extraterrestrial legacy is now launching into the future:

🚀 This week, Bollinger Shipyards, one of Louisiana’s largest and most experienced ship manufacturers, announced it has been hired by Rocket Lab to retrofit a 400-foot barge into a rocket recovery platform. The ship, Return on Investment, will serve as a floating landing pad for Rocket Lab’s new Neutron class reusable rockets, which are designed to carry satellites and support national security missions. The conversion, underway at Bollinger’s shipyard in Amelia, Louisiana, includes the addition of dynamic positioning thrusters, remote-control communications systems, and blast shielding. Once complete, the vessel will operate in the Atlantic Ocean, catching rockets as they descend back to Earth. You can read more here.

🚀 At the same time, the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and Stennis Space Center in nearby Hancock County, Mississippi have secured major new investments through federal legislation. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, includes $30 million for Michoud and $120 million for Stennis – funds earmarked for modernization, infrastructure upgrades, and long-term mission capacity. The funding helps ensure that Artemis missions through Artemis VI, including plans for a permanent lunar space station, remain on track, while securing jobs for thousands of aerospace professionals at both Gulf South sites. Combined, Michoud and Stennis support more than 6,800 direct jobs across advanced manufacturing, testing, and R&D. You can read more here.

🚀 Finally this week, Globalstar, headquartered in Covington, Louisiana, announced a new partnership with the U.S. Army to explore how its satellite technology can support key missions, from drone operations to logistics tracking and communications in remote environments. The focus is on lightweight, low-power communications tools that perform where traditional infrastructure fails – an increasingly critical need for modern military operations. This announcement comes on the heels of Globalstar’s third launch agreement with SpaceX, which will add nine more low-earth orbit satellites to its fleet by 2026. That launch follows a series of high-profile milestones that include a game-changing partnership with Apple, which uses Globalstar’s satellite network to power emergency messaging for iPhones. You can read more here.