Space Exploration Technologies, the space travel company formed by Elon Musk, raised $1bn on Tuesday, one of three space-related rounds closed in the space of a week, illustrating the increasing role being played by private companies in the space and satellite sector.
Diversified internet company Google invested $900m of the cash, according to the Wall Street Journal, with financial services provider Fidelity providing the rest. The round reportedly valued SpaceX at $12bn and increased the company’s overall funding to about $1.25bn.
The funding followed the investment by semiconductor technology producer Qualcomm and Virgin Group, the conglomerate that owns space exploration company Virgin Galactic, in OneWeb, a startup that aims to use satellites to increase worldwide internet coverage, earlier in the week.
Satellite imaging company Planet Labs announced its own $95m round the day after SpaceX’s, just days after its 72nd and 73rd satellites went into orbit on a rocket launched by SpaceX, and Planet Labs has now raised $160m in debt and equity in less than two years.
SpaceX predominantly focuses on space travel and technology, and has set a long-term target of reaching and colonising Mars but press reports indicated that Google’s cash was supplied to help fund SpaceX’s installation of satellites which, like OneWeb’s, would provide internet access to remote areas that would otherwise be out of reach.
Google, which has operated satellite imaging service Google Earth since 2005, has been a long-term investor in satellite technology. It acquired geospatial data company Keyhole in 2004 and high-resolution satellite imaging company Skybox Imaging for $500m in August last year.
These deals indicate that while SpaceX’s long term ambitions, boosted by $5bn of contracts including $2bn from NASA to modify the company’s Dragon spacecraft technology and transport cargo to the International Space Station, will likely continue to focus on exploration, a significant level of funding is on offer for satellite-based technology that can meet more immediate uses on Earth.
As shown by its collaboration with OneWeb, SpaceX could seek to leverage its position as the undisputed market leader in private space flight in order to benefit from these developments, but an important element of its growth has been due to its ability to successfully diversify its business model so it does not rely on a single part of the business in order to expand.
SpaceX reached a settlement with the US Air Force on Friday over the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) programme, which involves the launch of surveillance satellites for the US government. The initiative has so far been dominated by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between aerospace companies Lockheed and Boeing founded in 2006.
Although SpaceX’s involvement in EELV, together with its newly formed alliance with Google, a company well known for its own flexible approach to privacy issues and close ties to the US national security establishment, may well alarm privacy campaigners, the deal is sure to prove lucrative to the company and will ensure it can maintain a diverse range of customers across the private and public sectors as it goes forward.
– Photo courtesy of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.