SpaceX: Launch A Rocket, Make A Billion

What does it take to make $1 billion these days? Try launching a rocket into outer space.

At least, that's what financial analysis firm PrivCo says happened last week when SpaceX completed an unprecedented trip to the International Space Station.

Upon becoming the first-ever private space business to send a cargo ship to the station, the company's total value jumped from $1.4 billion to $2.4 billion, according to estimates PrivCo released Thursday.

Elon Musk, the storied Silicon Valley entrepreneur who created SpaceX in 2002 and reportedly owns 65 percent of the privately-held firm, saw his paper wealth jump $650 million.

SpaceX is now cash-flow positive and has entered into $4 billion worth of contracts for commercial and government launches through 2017, SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham told PrivCo. PrivCo expects SpaceX to generate $454.6 in revenue this year.

Orbital Sciences, a publicly-traded space company, saw its shares post large stock-gains in the wake of the news, Bloomberg reported.

President Obama reportedly called Elon Musk to personally congratulate him on SpaceX's successful mission. Hopefully Musk gave him a hearty thanks –- for the congrats, and for the money Obama has poured into the private space industry since he axed NASA’s 30-year shuttle program.

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• The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 3:44 a.m., carrying the Dragon spacecraft.

• The Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket is seen during a time exsposure as it lifts off from space launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., early Tuesday, May 22, 2012. This launch marks the first time, a private company sends its own rocket to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.(AP Photo/John Raoux)

• Andre Kuipers, Donald Pettit

  In this April 20, 2012 NASA/European Space Agency photo, Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers, left, and American astronaut Donald Pettit await the arrival of the SpaceX Dragon supply capsule after its scheduled launch aboard the Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station. Private rocket maker SpaceX aimed for a Tuesday liftoff after fixing the engine problem that caused a launch abort over the weekend. If launched Tuesday, May 22, the Dragon will reach the space station Thursday and undergo a series of practice maneuvers from more than a mile out. Then on Friday, the capsule will fly within reach of the station's 58-foot robot arm, which will snare it and berth it to the orbiting lab. The arm will be operated by astronauts Pettit,and Kuipers, two of the six station residents. (AP Photo/NASA/European Space Agency)

• The Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket stands on space launch complex 40 ready for another launch attempt at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Monday, May 21, 2012. After an aborted attempt with a half-second remaining before liftoff last Saturday, SpaceX is set to launch early on Tuesday, May 22. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

• Photographers set up remote cameras to cover a launch attempt of the Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket at space launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Monday, May 21, 2012. After an aborted attempt with a half-second remaining before liftoff last Saturday, SpaceX is set to launch early on Tuesday, May 22. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

• SpaceX Rocket To Become The First Non-Governmental Vehicle To Reach Int'l Space Station

  TITUSVILLE, FL - MAY 22: SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft atop rocket Falcon 9 lifts off from Pad 40 of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Titusville, Florida. The launch this morning makes SpaceX the first commercial company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station. (Photo by Roberto Gonzalez/Getty Images)

• In this Nov. 16, 2011, photo provided by NASA, the SpaceX Dragon capsule is lifted to be placed atop its cargo ring inside a processing hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The first commercial cargo run to the International Space Station has been delayed again for more software testing. Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, was aiming for a Monday, April 30, 2012, liftoff of its Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule. But on Wednesday, May 2, the California-based company announced its latest postponement and said a new launch date had not been set. (AP Photo/NASA, Kim Shiflett)

• CEO of SpaceX And Tesla Motors Makes Announcement On SpaceX's Latest Venture

  WASHINGTON - APRIL 5: Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp, pauses while speaking during a news conference at the National Press Club April 5, 2011 in Washington, DC. Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) and Tesla Motors, held the news conference to announce SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket which could complete missions to the International Space Station and Moon and should be ready for use by the end of 2012. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

• CEO of SpaceX And Tesla Motors Makes Announcement On SpaceX's Latest Venture

  WASHINGTON - APRIL 5: Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp, speaks during a news conference at the National Press Club April 5, 2011 in Washington, DC. Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) and Tesla Motors, held the news conference to announce SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket which could complete missions to the International Space Station and Moon and should be ready for use by the end of 2012. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

• US President Barack Obama tours SpaceX l

  US President Barack Obama tours SpaceX launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 15, 2010. Obama traveled to Florida in a bid to soothe critics of his plan to scrap an over-budget Moon launch program and reshape NASA's future. AFP PHOTO/Jewel SAMAD (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

Comments

[JDOK]

10:13 AM on 06/10/2012

America needs a thousand Elon Musk's! People who have the intelligence and vision as well as the will, means and guts to actually make things happen, unimpeded by politics but assisted by government, constitutes what Americans like to believe their strength is derived from. SpaceX, Tesla Motors, Solar City and PayPal all emanating, in large part, from one relatively young person. The politics of division have not penetrated SpaceX yet because it is a success. President Obama's backing of Elon Musk should be major positive news but unfortunately it is nothing more than a side-bar on page 5. Elon Musk and his ventures should be celebrated and emulated throughout the country. This is what America is all about......

[planetjeffy]

11:18 PM on 06/08/2012

Romney risks nothing and gets a guaranteed payday...with huge tax breaks and subsidies.

Had SpaceX's 4th mission failed, they would have shut down. Musk risked everything, helped create a new industry and thousands of high paying jobs. He deserves his fortune.

[jsarets]

03:13 PM on 06/08/2012

NASA invests $381M over 6 years in SpaceX.
SpaceX generates $455M in revenue in 2012 alone, with $4B more on contract.

The U.S. taxpayer got a really good return on investment from SpaceX.

In other good SpaceX news, subsequent Dragon missions to the ISS will also deliver several secondary payloads for commercial and academic customers. The CRS-1 mission will carry the first of the second-generation ORBCOMM mobile broadband satellites plus a number of cubesats and microsats for researchers and student groups.

As a commercial launch service, SpaceX has many other customers besides NASA, and because of the flexibility of the Falcon 9, they can even service multiple customers per launch, including a mix of NASA and commercial payloads.

SpaceX recently announced that Intelsat, the largest commercial satellite operator in the world, will be the first customer for the new SpaceX Falcon Heavy, which will be capable of orbiting 53 tons of payload. Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful launch vehicle since the Saturn V.

[gschear]

02:59 PM on 06/08/2012

President Obama didn't "Ax" the shuttle program. Its planned life cycle ended. Private companies will do cargo and people to orbit cheaper and certainly safer than the Shuttle. NASA is by no means out of business. The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle was originally part of NASA’s Constellation Program, which is no longer an active NASA program. However, the design for Orion was carried forward as the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (Orion MPCV) as part of NASA’s new plans to explore beyond low Earth orbit and into deep space. If anything NASA is now freed up from the delivery truck business and can concentrate on exploration and expansion. All at less cost to the taxpayer.

[brflux]

12:19 PM on 06/08/2012

How is paying a private company billions of dollars a better value than NASA? NASA created so many good union jobs which helped make the middle class. These private companies will create low wage non-union jobs and outsource jobs to countries like china. China will use the tech that they build for these private space companies to take over the the private space business. Soon we will be paying Chinese space companies to take U.S stuff to space. Chinese companies that are subsidized by the chinese government. One more nail in the coffin for the U.S. middle class.

[theveggiedude]

12:50 PM on 06/08/2012

The government also created the internet, but at some point it is time to step out of the way and let the private sector take over. I still think NASA has its role to play, but it should focus on science and exploration - and you don't need to send people into space to do that.

[brflux]

09:22 PM on 06/08/2012

Point taken.

[French Toast]

02:09 PM on 06/08/2012

SpaceX has created a ton of jobs, all American, all that pay. They save money simply by doing things in-house. It's not the volume of jobs nor attaining the biggest ones. It's about returns. SpaceX is already doing it cheaper than the Chinese can (they even ADMITTED as such). They are saving NASA money by creating lower cost trips into space.

Also, you are off base by thinking the future is everything made in China. As China ascends, costs go up and manufacturing jobs go elsewhere. It is already happening even with their currency manipulation. Hell, jobs are being mechanized and therefore "coming back" to America.

I am a big proponent of the middle class, but one has to realize that the reason the wealthy are fighting so hard is because classes are largely threatened by new industrial revolutions. Educate yourself on technology trends. The busywork worker has a very small future. Fast food jobs and all these busy work jobs people have because industries are too lazy to automate are coming to an end. The misery is coming from the upgrades happening and society not preparing for it fast enough.

[brflux]

09:23 PM on 06/08/2012

I stand corrected and relent. 

[fozzi58]

09:57 AM on 06/11/2012

Your last sentence is an indictment to take the savings from NASA and pour it into education funding.

[wizardneedsbeer]

12:14 PM on 06/08/2012

He Who Dies With The Most Toy's Wins

[AUbrickRd]

11:37 AM on 06/08/2012

Restrictions of money in our major sciences are killing our potential. If given resources and not restricted by budgets and foolish politics, we probably would have been an inter-planetary species for decades already if not moving outwards towards interstellar society.

[ThinkCreeps]

02:15 PM on 06/08/2012

Which would have been a colossal waste of time and money. Voyager's doing fine.

[NoireLion]

11:34 AM on 06/08/2012

Good Luck to SPACEX and every other private entrepeneur with the vision and daring to take us Terrans "where no man hath gone before".
Like stories about where humanity is going- and not where its currently mired. Very inspiring story glad to see its profitable- wish more billionaires would get off their loot and spend some on technology and exploration off this rock- so humanity canprogress.
After you have bought your super cars, your yachts, private islands, and mansions in the Islands- and you still have billions left and your family will still be rich 20 generations into the future- how about you greedy devils- put some loot out into space? Its the best move- and obviously profitable. Maybe then you'll actually be job creators- that arent maid, chauffer, pilot, cook- service jobs to make your personal life a cushy sweet deal- and something the planet that has given you everything could use- engineers, astronauts, astrophysicists, technicians and the rest- taht can get this party started. Companies like SpaceX and the Burt Rutan crew in New Mexico- fronted by Virgin mogul Sir Richard- have already shown the actvity is profitable and get great headlines.

Come off some of that money and lets rock.

[NoireLion]

11:27 AM on 06/08/2012

Obama- didn't "axe NASA". He just had to carry on the Bush NASA plan already etched in stone.
Since Bush tanked the economy after blowing billions in surplus- by being irresponsible with America's credit card- (and paying for absolutely nothing) like all Republicans since Reagan.

[fredrdr]

01:46 PM on 06/08/2012

On target!

[bigwingnut]

09:36 AM on 06/08/2012

Once SpaceX gets a man-certified capsule up and running, we will no longer be hostage to the Russians when it comes to getting astronauts to and from the Space Station. I read that right after the last Shuttle flight, the Russians doubled the amount they charge us to transport an astronaut. What's to stop them from doubling it again?

[jak11]

11:27 AM on 06/08/2012

I agree..... and I can't help but wonder, once they can put people into space....how long before they start planning trips to Mars...and beyond?

[AUbrickRd]

11:35 AM on 06/08/2012

It will be proportionately long to how many current programs are in place that feel their programs will be threatened by the new programs' needs. See: Mars Direct

[fredrdr]

01:47 PM on 06/08/2012

Already in the works along with planning for a trip to a nearby star.

[brflux]

12:27 PM on 06/08/2012

Whats stopping SpaceX from doubling or tripling the price? We will be held hostage to to big business and shareholder profits. Congress will fall all over it's self to make sure private space companies get no-bid contracts and huge tax breaks.

[fredrdr]

01:48 PM on 06/08/2012

Competition!