Saturday morning before sunrise, Elon Musk’s commercial space company SpaceX sent four astronauts on its Crew-7 mission off to the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The launch was a success. The first stage booster of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle returned to Earth, while the second stage carried the Dragon space capsule into orbit before separation. The Dragon capsule is now on a 30-hour flight to rendezvous with the space station.
All four astronauts in the capsule hail from different countries: the U.S., Japan, Denmark, and Russia. The crew is slated to conduct scientific research related to human space exploration.
“Crew-7 is a shining example of the power of both American ingenuity and what we can accomplish when we work together,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a news release. “By partnering with countries around the world, NASA is engaging the best scientific minds to enable our bold missions, and it’s clear that we can do more—and we can learn more—when we work together.”
The U.S. had been unable to launch crews into space after the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011. SpaceX restored that launch capability in 2020. It’s continued to launch astronauts into space for NASA without major incident.
In August 2022, NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.4 billion-plus contract for five flights. That means SpaceX generates roughly $300 million in revenue from each flight. For that money, SpaceX has to carry astronauts to space and, of course, return them to Earth.
Private companies flying for NASA are relatively new. The original contract award designed to build public/private partnerships at NASA goes back to 2014 when
Boeing
(ticker: BA) was awarded a $4.2 billion contract and SpaceX a $2.6 billion contract.
Boeing is still working on its Starliner spaceship that launches atop a rocket provided by ULA, the 50/50 joint venture between
Lockheed Martin
(LMT) and Boeing. NASA and the company scrubbed a crewed test flight slated for July. That flight is likely to occur in March 2024.
Boeing’s struggles and SpaceX’s success illustrate just how far SpaceX has come since its first orbital flight in 2008. SpaceX has launched more than 60 rockets so far in 2023, essentially already matching 2022’s total before the end of August.
Sales in 2023 are estimated to come in at about $8 billion based on NASA missions, missions for other companies, and the company’s Starlink space-based Wi-Fi business. Because SpaceX is privately held, it doesn’t publish regular financial updates. It didn’t respond to a request for comment about 2023 sales.
SpaceX is part of Elon Musk’s manufacturing and technology empire which has made him the richest person on the planet. Musk is worth some $250 billion according to Barron’s. His
Tesla
(TSLA) stake is worth some $170 billion and his SpaceX stake is worth $60 to $70 billion based on recent SpaceX trades on private stock exchanges.
Tesla stock is up about 94% year to date, easily outpacing the 30% gain of the
Nasdaq Composite.
The move has added roughly $90 billion to Musk’s wealth tally.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
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