
IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration
SpaceX Profitable as Musk Pulls In NASA Contracts, Google Cash
• http://www.bloomberg.com, by John LippertSpace Exploration Technologies, as the closely held company is formally known, has contracts worth $4.2 billion for hauling U.S. astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station, and Pentagon officials say they expect to certify it soon for military payloads. And SpaceX's business of launching satellites looks so promising that, in January, Google and Fidelity Investments together invested $1 billion in the Hawthorne, California–based company. That gives them a 10 percent stake that values SpaceX at $10 billion. Other investors include the Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Valor Equity Partners, and Capricorn. With 50 launches worth $5 billion on its manifest, SpaceX is making money, according to its website, although a spokesman wouldn't say how much.
On Jan. 10, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, above, and successfully delivered 5,200 pounds of supplies to the space station. SpaceX's schedule includes 16 satellite launches in 2015, the most in the company's 13-year history. "Google brings the applications for the satellites to the table, and SpaceX has the technical know-how and the launch capacity," says Marco Caceres, director of space studies at consulting firm Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia.