Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » SpaceX

SpaceX Dragon To Meet International Space Station After Launching April 30th

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:00:55 +0000

The Dragon is a reusable spacecraft that was developed by SpaceX. During the Dragon’s maiden flight in December 2010, it had become the first commercially built and operated spacecraft ever to be recovered successfully from orbit. SpaceX will be launching the Dragon on April 30th and will reach the International Space Station a few days later. The Dragon will ride on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket and will launch from Cape Canaveral a little bit after noon EST. There will be a live video feed of the launch on NASA TV at 11AM.

SpaceX Launching A Cargo Ship To The ISS In November

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:08:47 +0000

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), an American space transport company founded by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, is launching their second test pod to the International Space Station (ISS) and bring it back again. If SpaceX succeeds, they will become one out of two commercial organizations with the ability to deliver cargo to the ISS. SpaceX is also actively working on finding ways to transport people between the station and home. [TechCrunch]

NASA Invests $75 Million Into SpaceX

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 01:25:29 +0000

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has invested $75 million into Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). SpaceX is led by CEO Elon Musk. NASA is investing in SpaceX as part of the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev2) effort. NASA’s CCDev2 effort is to accelerate the availability of space transportation to their crew as they get prepare to retire the Space Shuttle. [socaltech]

Inside The SpaceX Dragon [INFOGRAPHIC]

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 07:53:49 +0000

Earlier this week Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has a successful Dragon space capsule launch. The Dragon is expected to be the first commercial spacecraft to make a round trip in low Earth orbit. Space.com designed an infographic that makes it easy to understand how the Dragon works. Check it out below:

SpaceX Raises $50 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 23:29:44 +0000

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), the American space transport company founded by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk has raised $50 million according to an SEC filing. “Existing investors expressed an interest in making an incremental investment and we accommodated their request,” stated a company representative. This puts SpaceX at a total of $200 million. Previous investors include Elon Musk, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and the Founders Fund. [BusinessInsider]

Elon Musk Probably Made Close To $24 Million From Tesla IPO

Amit Chowdhry — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 15:04:11 +0000

Late last month, the New York Times wrote an article about how Elon Musk is broke. “About four months ago, I ran out of cash,” said Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal and the head of Tesla Motors.

Musk made about $200 million when PayPal was sold to eBay. And Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) raised about $465 million from the Energy Department in the form of low-interest loans.

Musk said that his account is less than empty because he spent his last cent in his businesses and is now living off the loans of his wealthy friends. Making matters worse, he is the middle of a divorce with his wife Justine Musk because he ran off with actress Talulah Riley.

Justine wants the house, alimony, child support, and $6 million in cash. She also wants partial ownership in Tesla Motors and Elon’s stake in rocket company SpaceX.

Essentially Musk was having liquidity issues, but he could have borrowed money from friends or rushed a private stock sale. He decided not to because he wanted to hold on to his equity in Tesla, which just had an initial public offering (IPO). “My assets are huge,” said Musk with a laugh. Elon was required to hold on to at least 65% of Tesla as part of the loan agreement from the Energy Department too.

Musk did not make his initial fortune from PayPal. He also started a dot-com publishing business called Zip2 that he sold for $300 million. SpaceX, another company founded by Musk has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA, which is being phased out, but SpaceX did complete a successful launch of Falcon 9 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Now that Tesla is a public company, it is estimated that Elon Musk made at least $24 million from the IPO. Tesla is the first automotive company to have an IPO since 1956, which is when Ford went public. Tesla set the price at $17 per share and Musk sold 1.42 million shares to underwriters.

Tesla builds electric cars (such as the $109,000 Roadster) that are often bought by celebrities and other wealthy customers.

SpaceX Looking To Raise $60 Million Round of Funding

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:17:22 +0000

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) is a space transportation companies that was started by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk. SpaceX is building reusable space launch vehicles called the Falcon 1 and the Falcon 9 along with a Dragon series of vehicles.

The company started in 2002 and employs about 800 people. Musk himself put $100 million in seed funding for the company. After that the company raised $20 million in Series A from The Founders Fund. The company is now pursuing an additional $60 million additional round. DFJ put in about $15 million of the new round.

Last year SpaceX launched a rocket into space after failing three times. Now SpaceX is being hired by aerospace companies and the government to launch satellites.

[via VentureBeat]