Elon Musk Expects SpaceX to Spend Around $2 Billion on Starship Rocket This Year
SpaceX’s Starship lifting off on its inaugural test mission earlier this month from its launchpad in southern Texas. Photo: patrick t. fallon/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images By Micah Maidenberg April 29, 2023 10:10 pm ET SpaceX anticipates spending about $2 billion on its Starship rocket program this year and might not need to raise additional outside funding as that work unfolds, according to founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk. Mr. Musk outlined SpaceX’s plans Saturday during an audio chat on Twitter about Starship, the powerful rocket the company launched for the first time earlier this month. The inaugural test mission ended after about four minutes when a flight-termination system on the vehicle destroyed it as the rocket began to tumble. Space Explora
SpaceX’s Starship lifting off on its inaugural test mission earlier this month from its launchpad in southern Texas.
Photo: patrick t. fallon/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
SpaceX anticipates spending about $2 billion on its Starship rocket program this year and might not need to raise additional outside funding as that work unfolds, according to founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk.
Mr. Musk outlined SpaceX’s plans Saturday during an audio chat on Twitter about Starship, the powerful rocket the company launched for the first time earlier this month. The inaugural test mission ended after about four minutes when a flight-termination system on the vehicle destroyed it as the rocket began to tumble.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the formal name for the Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX, is privately held and doesn’t disclose financial information. The company has raised outside funds from investors over the years, including from Inc.’s Google and Founders Fund.
SpaceX has been developing the rocket, which stands nearly 400 feet tall when fully stacked, for several years. In addition to satellite launches, it is designed to be able to handle deep-space missions, including a high-profile NASA astronaut moon landing planned for 2025.
Despite the expected Starship spending, the company likely won’t need to seek new funds, Mr. Musk indicated. “To the best of my knowledge, we do not need to raise incremental funding for SpaceX,” he said.
The company will continue to provide opportunities to let employees sell their shares, he added. Last year, SpaceX was valued at around $140 billion during a period when employees could sell shares, The Wall Street Journal reported.
SpaceX is now working to put additional ground infrastructure at the company’s launchpad in Texas, located adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico and east of the city of Brownsville.
The April 20 Starship launch spread debris over 385 acres of SpaceX and state park land and deposited materials as far as 6 ½ miles from the launch site, environmental regulators have said. Chunks of concrete were thrown from the site.
Mr. Musk said the company was moving ahead to build a new system at the launch pad that uses steel reinforcements and water, and is meant to tamp down the kind of plume the first flight generated. SpaceX thought the pad would erode during that launch, but didn’t think concrete would be smashed, he said, citing data collected during an earlier engine test.
“We did not think that would have occurred” based on the earlier engine test, he said. “If we thought that would occur, then we would have waited for the steel.”
SpaceX won’t be permitted to operate another Starship launch until the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates commercial space launches, signs off.
Mr. Musk also said Saturday that the company needed to conduct fresh work on the rocket’s flight-termination system. Such systems are installed on rockets as key safety features, allowing the vehicles to be destroyed during flights. Starship’s system took too long after it was activated, he said.
He added that the company has the manufacturing capability to continue producing hardware for Starship as it works to fly the vehicle to orbit.
“We do have a production line that if it takes us 10 flights, we’ll do it,” he said.
Write to Micah Maidenberg at [email protected]
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