Just last year Elon Musk was coming under fire from all directions as SpaceX, Tesla, and Solarcity were struggling to show profitability. Fast forward just a few months and Elon Musk seems on top of the world. In April, Tesla passed General Motors to become the most valuable U.S. based automaker. Tesla and Solarcity have merged and are expanding into new products and partnerships with Panasonic to build solar cells. And SpaceX seems to be on everyone’s lips with successful launch after successful launch.
SpaceX’s Latest Launch was a Special One
On Monday, SpaceX successfully launched a classified payload for the Pentagon. While the company has already worked with NASA and other government agencies, as well as private companies, working with the Pentagon elevates SpaceX in a big way. Government projects equal government pay. SpaceX is revolutionizing and privatizing space travel with the use of reusable rockets, and now it looks like Musk is about to reap the rewards of disrupting yet another industry.
SpaceX had disastrous launches the last few years, so nothing has been handed to Musk. But Monday showcased the fourth successful launch for the company in 2017. Now, SpaceX is aiming for two launches every month for the rest of the year, with that number climbing to three launches each month by 2020.
The reason a successful launch is so important is because the more Musk can prove his company is correct in their theories and execution, the more money comes in. With each successful launch, SpaceX gets richer with new contracts, projects, and investors. And launching a spy satellite for the government is a huge step in guaranteeing cash flow.
What’s next for Musk’s celestial aspirations? Mars. Musk has said that he believes we can send a man to Mars for $200,000 each way — but that’s assuming 1 million people were to sign on as colonists. To send one dozen astronauts to the red planet would see a sticker price of $10 billion according to the Tesla CEO.
Watch the footage of SpaceX’s NRO launch from AB Video Studio:
For the time being, however, SpaceX demonstrated its ability to properly launch a classified, expensive, government asset into Space, and in so doing, took big business away from Boeing and Lockheed Martin. If SpaceX ever goes public, buy as much as you can.
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