SpaceX is a space transportation service and manufacturer of space rockets and other transport vehicles. It was founded by Elon Musk in 2002.
SpaceX makes money by charging both governmental and commercial customers to send goods into space. These goods include ISS supplies and infrastructure, but also people and satellites for various purposes.
SpaceX is also in the process of creating its Starlink network, designed to give every citizen access to fast and affordable internet.
SpaceX Origin Story
SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is an aerospace manufacturer and space transportation service founded by Elon Musk in 2002.
The company was created to reinvigorate public interest and investment in space exploration.
Musk sold his stake in PayPal in 2001 for $200 million, but rather than retire to a tropical island; he started work on establishing a human presence on another planet.
This initiative, with accessible internet and sustainable transportation, comprises three areas Musk deems crucial to humanity’s long-term survival.
Since NASA had no interest in a manned Mars mission, Musk created the Mars Oasis project, where a greenhouse with seeds embedded in a nutrient gel would be landed on the red planet.
In essence, the project would send important data to Earth about the viability of transporting (and sustaining) life on another world.
Musk had to solve two major problems before he could realize his vision. For one, he needed to work out how to sustain plant life in hypobaric environments.
He also needed to develop a cost-effective solution for sending the lander into space.
The cheapest launch vehicles in the USA at the time were around $65 million, and with two extra missions planned in case the first failed, Musk found that the cost of the rockets alone would consume his budget.
While he was ultimately rebuffed and not taken seriously by the sellers, Musk used his experience as inspiration to start a company and build the components himself.
He saw this as a viable solution since the cost of raw materials comprised just 3% of the total price of a rocket.
Rocket engineer Tom Mueller joined SpaceX soon after the company was founded and worked for around two years to develop the first Falcon 1 rocket.
Musk contributed a third of his fortune toward the project despite many believing it was not a worthwhile endeavor. By 2005, the company had amassed some 150 employees.
SpaceX planned to launch Falcon 1 for the first time in November 2003 but suffered numerous setbacks over the next few years.
Getting the rocket into orbit proved to be a steep learning curve for SpaceX.
Thanks to setbacks caused by fuel leaks and collisions, the company took four attempts before a successful launch.
The first occurred on September 28, 2008, with another in July 2009.
Musk would later comment that Falcon 1 was the smallest useful orbital rocket that could be produced, with larger and more complex launch vehicles potentially bankrupt the company if they failed.
Accompanying the rocket was the Dragon spacecraft, named after the 1960s folk song Puff, The Magic Dragon by the group Peter, Paul, and Mary.
Musk said he chose the name Dragon in response to the critics who believed his mission was impossible.
Today, SpaceX has an impressive list of achievements.
It has become the first privately-owned company to launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft.
SpaceX was also the first company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) and re-use an orbital rocket.
SpaceX has managed to secure $2 billion in investment capital in 2022 alone because of its visionary ideas and leadership.
SpaceX revenue generation
SpaceX is essentially a delivery service. If an organization wants to send goods to the ISS or launch a satellite into orbit, the company uses its fleet of vehicles, including the Dragon, Falcon Heavy, and Falcon 9.
As successful as SpaceX has been, it should be noted that it competes with several other companies for space delivery services.
These include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop-Grumman.
With all that said, let’s look at some specific SpaceX revenue streams.
Governmental supply contracts
SpaceX has won several NASA contracts to resupply the International Space Station.
The most recent contract involves $2.9 billion in funding to build a spacecraft to send astronauts to the moon.
The company has also worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), launching a satellite in 2012 to monitor global sea levels and oceanic circulation.
Similar contracts for the Air Force saw the launch of a GPS satellite in 2015. In 2020, SpaceX won a contract to provide 40% of all U.S. military launch requirements.
In more recent years, SpaceX has made more money from commercial service deliveries. Each delivery using the Falcon 9 rocket is advertised at $62 million.
Starlink
Starlink is a satellite network designed to give every citizen on Earth high-speed internet access.
Although the project is in its infancy, SpaceX has secured government contracts to bring high-speed internet to rural U.S customers.
On September 15, 2021, the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft became the first crewed orbital mission without professional astronauts.
The mission, named Inspiration4, was piloted by confessed space geek and billionaire Jared Isaacman who only had around 6,000 hours of experience piloting various aircraft.
Inspiraton4 was powered by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and the company also ran a six-month training program for Isaacman and the three other crew members.
While considering his options in the planning stage of the mission, Isaacman noted in an interview that “there was no question it was going to be SpaceX. They’re leading the path.”
Indeed, SpaceX already had a proven track record in transporting astronauts to the International Space Station.
More to the point, the first successful mission without professional astronauts paves the way for an additional source of company revenue.
There are likely to be further missions in the future as SpaceX continues to work toward commercial spaceflight, with Elon Musk stating that these missions help SpaceX “bring the costs down and make space accessible for all.”
Rideshare program
SpaceX also offers the so-called “Smallsat” rideshare program to give companies with modest payloads affordable access to space.
Prices for this service start at $1 million for a 200 kg (440 lbs) payload delivered to sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), with rates also available for mid-inclination low Earth orbit (LEO), geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), and trans-lunar injection (TLI).
SSO missions depart approximately every four months with more frequent mid-inclination launches.
Additional mass for any mission is charged at $5,000 per kilogram.
If the client payload is delayed for whatever reason, SpaceX also charges a 10% fee to reschedule the launch to a later date.
Since the program was launched in 2017, SpaceX has noted the logistical difficulties of being a small satellite aggregator.
In an interview with Space News magazine in 2019, the vice president of commercial sales Tom Ochinero quipped that trying to get several customers ready at the same time was akin to herding cats.
Ochinero also mentioned that individual launches would go ahead even if the Falcon 9 rockets were not carrying the maximum payload.
In 2021, SpaceX transported 231 small satellites into orbit across two flights in January and June, with clients including telecommunications company Kepler Communications and Earth-imaging business Planet Labs.
A deal was also struck with Varda Space Industries to launch its space factory aboard a mission slated for Q1 2023.
The company hopes to establish the world’s first commercial industrial park at scale, manufacturing items such as fiber optic cables and life-saving pharmaceuticals to take advantage of the zero-gravity, vacuum environment of space.
How much is SpaceX worth today?
SpaceX officially entered the hectocorn list, with a staggering valuation of $137 billion, by January 2023.
Indeed, SpaceX closed a round in January for $750 million, which valued the company at $137 billion, led by investors such as a16z (Andreessen Horowitz).
– SpaceX makes money by charging governmental and commercial customers to send goods into space. These goods include ISS supplies, infrastructure, and people and satellites for various purposes. – SpaceX is also creating its Starlink network, designed to give every citizen access to fast and affordable internet.
SpaceX makes a huge percentage of its money from launching satellites into orbit. Commercial businesses pay the company to launch satellites they can leverage for their firms. The launch fee per service is $62 million, but could be higher for complex launches.
Griffin later estimated that SpaceX was around 85% funded by the federal government, mostly through his NASA awards, with the remaining 15% funding split between Elon Musk and other private investors.
Reusability and rapid development are key to why SpaceX is so valuable. The company not long ago raised money at a $137 billion valuation, according to CNBC. In late 2021, SpaceX was valued at $100 billion.
SpaceX has been able to create rockets that can be reused several times. Now, rockets are very expensive and account for a huge chunk of the overall costs incurred by companies dealing in outer space missions. SpaceX has created rockets that can be reused seven times!
Today, a SpaceX rocket launching can be 97% cheaper than a Russian Soyuz ride cost in the '60s. The key to increasing cost efficiency? SpaceX rocket boosters usually return to Earth in good enough condition that they're able to be refurbished, which saves money and helps the company undercut competitors' prices.
Funding. SpaceX is privately funded. SpaceX developed its first launch vehicle—Falcon 1—and three rocket engines—Merlin, Kestrel, and Draco—completely with private capital.
The $1.5 billion sale of PayPal to eBay netted Musk an after-tax profit of $180 million. He invested the proceeds entirely into his new ventures: $100 million into SpaceX, $10 million into SolarCity Corp., and $70 million into Tesla.
SpaceX alone got a whopping $2.8 billion in government contracts last year, according to The Information, and has gotten a total of $15.3 billion from the government since 2003.
Their latest funding was raised on Mar 23, 2023 from a Grant round. SpaceX is funded by 83 investors. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are the most recent investors. SpaceX has a post-money valuation in the range of $10B+ as of Aug 25, 2021 , according to PrivCo.
It was the first private company to successfully launch and return a spacecraft from Earth orbit and the first to launch a crewed spacecraft and dock it with the International Space Station (ISS). Headquarters are in Hawthorne, California.
As of 2023, SpaceX is developing the Starship system with a fully-reusable two-stage launch vehicle, intended to replace all of its other launch vehicles and spacecraft for satellite delivery and human transport—Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon—and eventually support flights to the Moon and Mars.
NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 to develop their spacecraft, paying Boeing about 60 percent more. At the time, it was widely believed that the traditional contractor, with this additional money, would deliver services sooner.
NASA on Wednesday announced it has awarded five more astronaut missions to Elon Musk's SpaceX, with a contract worth an additional $1.4 billion to the company. The extra flights fall under NASA's Commercial Crew program, which delivers astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station.
The Space and Missiles Systems Center last year modified the contracts for SpaceX's next two GPS III satellite launches to allow reuse, a move that the military estimated will save about $64 million. Notably, Space Force required that SpaceX use the same booster to launch SV05 that launched the SV04 satellite.
Arriving at the space station Saturday will be an American, Canadian and Israeli who run investment, real estate and other companies. They're paying $55 million apiece for the rocket ride and accommodations, all meals included.
Since March 2006, SpaceX has launched 5 Falcon 1, 223 Falcon 9, 6 Falcon Heavy, and 1 Starship rockets. Of these, 3 Falcon 1, 2 Falcon 9 and 1 Starship launches were complete failures and 1 Falcon 9 launch were partial failures. As of May 2023, SpaceX has a 97.4% launch success rate.
Musk's rocket business SpaceX also contributes to his wealth. SpaceX was worth $125 billion in June 2022, with Musk's ownership at about 44%, according to Bloomberg.
How much does SpaceX in the United States pay? The average SpaceX salary ranges from approximately $42,441 per year for Laser Technician to $181,651 per year for Senior Manager. Average SpaceX hourly pay ranges from approximately $18.00 per hour for MIG Welder to $36.28 per hour for Inspector.
The highest paying role reported at SpaceX is Software Engineer at the L4 level with a yearly total compensation of $360,000. This includes base salary as well as any potential stock compensation and bonuses.
Most of the 4,100 plaintiffs, however, will only get $500 each. In 2016, a PayScale survey revealed that Tesla and SpaceX, both high-profile companies helmed by Elon Musk, are two of the lowest-paying employers in tech.
Google, part of Alphabet Inc., owned 6.99% of SpaceX shares as of December 2021, according to a corporate filing that SpaceX made in Alaska that month. Another investor, Founders Fund, owned 5.76% of the company as of a year ago, the same filing shows.
Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, one of South Africa's capital cities. Musk has British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His mother is Maye Musk (née Haldeman), a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, and raised in South Africa.
After college, he and his brother founded Zip2, their version of an online yellow pages. They started it with $US28,000 in seed money from their father. In 1999, they sold the company and Elon made $US22 million ($28.7 million).
Tesla might have survived without the government loan, but “it would have been difficult,” notes Musk's cofounder, and “would likely have diluted Elon's share of the company.”
The Obama Administration will lend Tesla Motors $465 million to build an electric sedan and the battery packs needed to propel it. It's one of three loans totaling almost $8 billion that the Department of Energy awarded today to spur the development of fuel-efficient vehicles.
SpaceX periodically allows current and former staffers the chance to sell shares, providing liquidity for a stock that doesn't trade publicly, former employees have said.
Although you can't buy shares of SpaceX as a retail investor, you can invest in it indirectly by buying shares in one of the companies that owns it. There are only 2 publicly-traded companies that have invested in SpaceX: Bank of America Corporation – NYSE: BAC.
You cannot buy SpaceX stock from stock exchanges. Since SpaceX is still a private company, it's not available in the public stock market. But that doesn't mean it will never be available. Venture capital funds is the current investment used to fund SpaceX.
SpaceX's top competitors include Dawn Aerospace, OneWeb, and Firefly Aerospace. Dawn Aerospace is a firm that builds reusable rockets for satellite delivery. Its mission is to provide more scalable and sustainable ways to access and move around in …
Another billionaire self-funded a historic, three-day mission aboard a SpaceX orbital capsule that flew higher than any human has traveled in decades. And all that promises to just be the beginning. The trio of space billionaires — Branson, Bezos and Elon Musk — have their eyes set squarely on the future.
Space activities are for the benefit of all nations, and any country is free to explore orbit and beyond. There is no claim for sovereignty in space; no nation can “own” space, the Moon or any other body.
Returning home on Dragon are NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina. The four space travelers are completing a five-month mission in space.
Starbase is a spaceport, production, and development facility for Starship rockets, located at Boca Chica, Texas, United States. It has been under construction since the late 2010s by SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer.
Elon Musk is the CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors and the CEO/CTO of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). At SpaceX, Elon is the chief designer, overseeing development of rockets and spacecraft for missions to Earth orbit and ultimately to other planets.
Merlin. Merlin is a family of rocket engines developed by SpaceX for use on its Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles. Merlin engines use a rocket grade kerosene (RP-1) and liquid oxygen as rocket propellants in a gas-generator power cycle. The Merlin engine was originally designed for recovery and reuse.
Funding. SpaceX is privately funded. SpaceX developed its first launch vehicle—Falcon 1—and three rocket engines—Merlin, Kestrel, and Draco—completely with private capital.
Musk used the majority of his earnings from his PayPal investment to establish Space Exploration Technologies Corp., also known as SpaceX. He founded the company with the goal of colonizing Mars. With $100 million from his fortune, he launched the company in 2002 and became the company's CEO and chief engineer.
Musk owns 42% of SpaceX, according to a document the company filed last week with the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates its Starlink satellite-broadband unit.
SpaceX alone got a whopping $2.8 billion in government contracts last year, according to The Information, and has gotten a total of $15.3 billion from the government since 2003.
The estimated total pay for a Astronaut at SpaceX is $140,840 per year. This number represents the median, which is the midpoint of the ranges from our proprietary Total Pay Estimate model and based on salaries collected from our users.
SpaceX projects a single Starship launch will cost $10 million in the next few years, and Musk has predicted it could eventually fall as low as $1 million. The company charges about $62 million per launch for its smaller Falcon 9 rocket.
This is why, when NASA Administrator Bill Nelson (himself a former senator) told a Senate subcommittee last month that price competition from SpaceX helped save taxpayers $40 billion on the cost of military space launches, well, as an investor that got my attention right away. Image source: SpaceX.
NASA on Wednesday announced it has awarded five more astronaut missions to Elon Musk's SpaceX, with a contract worth an additional $1.4 billion to the company.
Who is the richest man in the world? As of May 1, 2023, the richest man in the world is Bernard Arnault, the CEO and chairman of LVMH of France; he's worth nearly $237 billion. He moved into the number one spot after Elon Musk's fortune fell in late 2022 as shares of electric carmaker Tesla fell.
Elon Musk says he is "fairly nocturnal" and only sleeps about 6 hours a day. He told The Full Send podcast he usually goes to bed about 3 a.m. and gets up around 9 a.m. The Tesla CEO says he has a "bad habit" of immediately checking his phone after waking up.
Elon Reeve Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa where he grew up and would briefly attend university. He was born into a family of considerable wealth and had a knack for technology and entrepreneurship at a young age. He wrote and sold the code for a video game when he just 12 years old.
PayPal. Musk no longer holds a stake in PayPal. He exited his position after the sale of the company and used his proceeds from the sale to fund investments such as SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity.
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