Thread by @jpr007

SpaceX took in $1.9 billion in new funding and plans to raise more, capping off a busy period that includes its first successful human spaceflight, a launch for a satellite-based Internet service and work on a massive ship slated to carry people to Mars
fortune.com/2020/08/18/elo…

The company founded by Elon Musk sold the bulk of its planned $2.07 billion offering to investors starting Aug. 4, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday

SpaceX plans to sell another $165 million in equity and preferred stock

Seventy-five investors have participated in the latest round of funding, which will value the company at $46 billion, Bloomberg News reported last week

That would rank SpaceX as one of the most valuable venture-backed U.S. companies

SpaceX’s fundraising comes during a fertile period, both for the Tesla sister company and capital markets more broadly

Technology companies and Tesla in particular have been especially favored as the stock market flirts with a record high

The filing came on the same day that SpaceX made a record sixth flight for one of its Falcon 9 rocket boosters

The company delivered 58 of the company’s Starlink satellites to orbit, along with three SkySat satellites for Planet Labs Inc

SpaceX has said that the latest version of the Falcon’s first stage can fly at least 10 times without major refurbishment

The Florida launch also marked more than 50 successful landings for the rocket’s first stage

The company has launched more than 600 satellites for Starlink, a high-speed Internet network that could begin commercial service late this year for customers in northern North America

On 2 August SpaceX successfully returned two astronauts from the International Space Station after a 64-day mission

The SpaceX Dragon demonstration trip, which began 30 May, was the first time a private contractor had flown National Aeronautics and Space Administration personnel aboard a private spacecraft

SpaceX’s first regular taxi flight for NASA, scheduled for mid-October, will take four astronauts to the space station

Meanwhile SpaceX is constructing prototypes in Boca Chica, Texas, of its heavy-lift Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket

The company plans in 2023 to fly Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his guests on the first private space-tourism jaunt around the moon

On 4 August a Starship prototype called SN5 flew to a height of about 500 feet before landing successfully

A similar craft called SN6 may perform a similar test this month

SpaceX ultimately plans to fly as many as 100 people aboard the 394-foot 120-meter tall Starship back and forth to the moon and Mars