The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Launch successful, but SpaceX’s woes continue
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CALIF. — A Falcon 9 rocket roared into the sky Saturday carrying 10 communications satellites — a return by SpaceX and its billionaire owner, Elon Musk, to the business of launching satellites to orbit.
But financial details disclosed this past week about the company overshadowed the successful liftoff, raising questions about the viability of Musk’s long-range plans for SpaceX and his vision of sending people to Mars.
SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, Calif., has been set back since September, when a Falcon 9 caught fire and exploded on a launchpad in Florida, destroying the rocket and its payload, a $200 million Israeli satellite that Facebook had planned to lease to expand global internet services. The company’s rockets had been grounded since then.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates commercial space launches, accepted SpaceX’s report on the explosion’s causes on Jan. 6 and issued a launch license, clearing the way for Saturday’s liftoff at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Over the next 14 months, the company plans six additional Falcon 9 launches to deploy 60 more Iridium satellites.
September’s explosion was SpaceX’s second failure in 15 months; a Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA cargo disintegrated in flight in June 2015. In the short-term, Saturday’s successful launch helps put SpaceX back on track.
But on Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX had lost $260 million in 2015 after the earlier accident, and revenue dropped 6 percent to $945 million. In earlier years, SpaceX officials including Musk described the company as consistently profitable; that claim has been removed from SpaceX’s website.
Company officials did not dispute the numbers, but portrayed a rosy future.
“Since 2002, we have been at the forefront of revolutionizing space technology, with a solid track record of success, strong customer relationships and more than 70 future launches on our manifest, representing over $10 billion in contracts,” Bret Johnsen, SpaceX’s chief financial officer, said in a statement. “Furthermore, with over $1 billion in cash reserves and no debt, the company is in a financially strong position and is well positioned for future growth.”
SpaceX hopes to launch its larger Falcon Heavy this spring. The Heavy, years behind schedule, would become the world’s most powerful rocket since NASA retired the Saturn 5 more than 40 years ago.
By applying Silicon Valley entrepreneurial practices to aerospace, SpaceX has undercut prices and disrupted the rocket launch business. That brought in many customers like Iridium, which is paying more than $450 million for the seven launches. The next-lowest bid from one of SpaceX’s competitors was $1.2 billion, said Matthew J. Desch, Iridium’s chief executive.
But the lower costs make it difficult to see how SpaceX could earn enough profit to finance its grand ambitions, which include an internet service linked by more than 4,000 satellites and a gigantic rocket with 42 engines that Musk says could take 100 passengers to Mars as early as 2024.