SpaceX has raised over $1.9 billion in new funding this month, representing its largest single fundraising round to date, according to a report from SpaceNews.
A regulatory filing on Tuesday (Aug. 18) showed that 75 investors made equity investments in Elon Musk’s launch company. SpaceX is also selling an additional $165 million in common stock, which would put the final amount of new funding at $2.07 billion, SpaceNews reported.
The California-based company raised more than $346 million in May after increasing the ceiling to $350 million, up from $250 million in February, according to the company’s earlier filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). “None of those SEC disclosures were filed at the end of SpaceX’s fundraising rounds. If both rounds are funded to completion, then SpaceX will have raised $2.41 billion,” Space News reported.
SpaceX has seen a lot of success this year, making the company favorable in the eyes of investors. The company’s successes include the historic Demo-2 mission, which launched on May 30. This mission marked the first crewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and the first time astronauts launched to orbit on a commercial spacecraft.
The mission successfully wrapped up on Aug. 2, when the Crew Dragon capsule carrying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX said that the mission’s success bodes well for the company’s future, including tourist flights.
SpaceX also recently beat out Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman in securing military satellite launch contracts with the Pentagon. SpaceX, along with the United Launch Alliance, will provide launch services for U.S. national security missions from 2022 to 2027. Under this contract, SpaceX will launch 40% of those missions and has already received a $316 million contract for one such mission, according to Space News.
Earlier this month, SpaceX successfully launched dozens of Starlink internet satellites and two small Earth-imaging satellites on Aug. 7. The Starlink satellites belong to the “megaconstellation” of thousands of internet satellites SpaceX is building for global internet connectivity. SpaceX’s two-stage Falcon 9 rocket carried the satellites into orbit.
On Aug. 18, SpaceX successfully launched another Falcon 9 rocket that reused the same first-stage booster for a sixth time, setting a new record for the reusable rockets.
SpaceX is also preparing for its first operational crewed flight for NASA, which is scheduled to launch on Oct. 23. The Crew-1 launch will send NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Michael Hopkins and Shannon Walker, and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
Source: Space.com