Elon Musk & # 39; s SpaceX: Starlink and BFR Details – Quartz

SpaceX's most ambitious projects are encircling the world with a network of Internet satellites and building a huge rocket that can transport humans to the Moon and Mars. Recent filings of regulatory documents, market information and, of course, tweets from founder Elon Musk provide new details on both projects and give an idea of ​​how they will be paid.

The company's main product, the Falcon 9 rocket, was certified yesterday by NASA for its most expensive scientific missions, a "major accomplishment for SpaceX's Falcon 9 team", Gwynne Shotwell. The company revealed that it had at least 22 Falcon 9 missions scheduled for 2019, a robust manifesto (and revenue) highlighting the vehicle's maturity as it prepares to fly astronauts around the year. next.

But the world spends only $ 5.5 billion on rocket launches each year. In competition with national champions in Europe, Russia and China, SpaceX can not fully dominate this market despite its commercial advantages. To justify its huge valuation of $ 27 billion, he must develop new business sectors.

Internet area

Starlink, which plans to launch several thousand satellites in low Earth orbit and provide Internet service to lower-level users, has been at the heart of SpaceX's financial plans for years. This year has seen some ups and downs: the successful launch of two prototype satellites for the constellation and the government's approval of the plan, but also a major reorganization of its strategic leadership. SpaceX has declined to say who in the company is currently responsible for satellite design and construction.

Nevertheless, the company still aims to launch the service for 2020 and plans to launch its first batch of satellites by the end of next year. A computer scientist, Mark Handley, of University College London, believes that the connection will be fast enough to attract high-speed traders looking for an edge over their competitors.

SpaceX takes action in Washington during the FCC's "Space Month", pushed by commission chair Ajit Pai to demonstrate the government's commitment to more flexible regulation 39, extraterrestrial activities. One of the problems is that the Starlink plan requires the launch of 4,425 satellites, double the number currently in orbit, and an increased risk of collision and new space debris.

On November 7, a SpaceX executive seeking licenses for the satellites that Pai met expressed the seriousness with which SpaceX addressed this concern, stressing that the survival of the company depended on its ability to launch satellites, making debris a threat to his results. The next day, SpaceX asked to change the height of its satellites in orbit, lowering them by 560 kilometers (348 miles) from the original forecast.

A lower orbit reduces the risks because the satellites will fall into the atmosphere within five years, a safe disposal method that also uses 16 satellites less. While the decision means a faster connection for users, SpaceX must sacrifice some of its geographic reach and amortize its investment in the spacecraft over a shorter period of time. The company clearly believes that these costs deserve to be approved by regulators and stakeholders.

Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium, a leading satellite manufacturer and launch customer of SpaceX, called the move "Very responsible."

Money for big ideas

Starlink's stated goal is to raise enough money for the company to fulfill its Martian dreams. But Starlink is not a cheap proposition, and SpaceX is preparing to tap the debt markets to finance its projects. The company is seeking a $ 750 million debt through an offer managed by Bank of America, according to Bloomberg.

Goldman Sachs, Musk's usual banker, had managed the deal, but the investment bank would have feared that SpaceX would seek to take on more debt in the future. The company currently has no significant debt and insists that it has positive cash, but relies on deposits in future launches and government financing for development.

The company's first spacecraft, Falcon 1, was financed primarily by Musk; his next big project, Falcon 9 and the Dragon Spaceship, was supported by government development funding. While Google and Fidelity have invested $ 1 billion in SpaceX in 2015, partly to fund Starlink, it has been harder to find money for BFR, the huge fully reusable rocket that the company wants launch by 2022 to meet its ambitions to travel in the solar. system.

One source was space tourism. Musk has taken a large deposit, in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars, from Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa in return for a future trip around the moon.

Musk tweeted an update BFR plan November 8, announcing that SpaceX engineers would build a model of the vehicle small enough to be launched on a Falcon 9 booster. This will allow them to test both the material that will protect the spacecraft against the heat. back to school and the vehicle's ability to control itself when it is flying much faster than the speed of sound, which can not be adequately tested in simulations. . Musk says the craft, modified from the second leg of the Falcon 9, will be ready to fly into orbit in June 2019.

It could also cost less than building a scale – scale model of the BFR spacecraft, which, according to Musk 's photographs, would perform low – altitude take – off and landing tests. 2019. Still, Musk says this ship is also coming, but when does somebody guess.