SpaceX Has Nearly A Full Uber Funding In Contracts

Posted: September 14, 2015 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Dragon (spacecraft), Earth, Elon Musk, Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Greenhouse gas, International Space Station, Low Earth orbit, NASA, SpaceX |Leave a comment

Drew Olanoff writes: Sending things to space isn’t cheap, which is exactly why Elon Musk got into the business with SpaceX. In a press release today about some newly signed contracts for use of its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, the company updated just how much money it has booked.

Seven Billion Dollars under contract for the 60 missions on manifest. To put all of this into perspective, Uber has raised $8.2 Billion to date.

Financially, the milestone is notable. SpaceX raised a fresh $1 billion in January of this year, after denying that it had reached a valuation of of $10 billion last Summer.

Musk-photo-patrick-fallon-wsj

Space exploration is a capital intensive business. To date, SpaceX has raised $1.2 billion. Given the massive discrepancy between the startup’s past raise total, and its recent raise quantity, it seems quite reasonable to presume that the firm isn’t cash poor looking ahead in the short, or moderate term.

Still, $7 billion in new revenue will incur capital and operating costs that could send the company back to private investors. Just for fun, given that SpaceX has 60 missions under contract worth around $7 billion, the firm is charging more than $100 million per show.

SpaceX faces an interesting financial question: As it drives the cost of space travel down…(read more)

Source: TechCrunch