SpaceX receives $2bn boost in latest funding round
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has raised a further $1.9bn (£1.4bn) in funding, a regulatory filing on Tuesday revealed.
It raises the equity value of the billionaire’s private rocket company to $46bn, Bloomberg reported ahead of the funding round last week.
It is the largest single fundraising round conducted by SpaceX yet, according to PitchBook data.
It comes after SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 first stage booster for a sixth time earlier today.
The reusable rocket brings the company a step closer to making space more accessible by reducing the cost of spaceflight.
NASA currently spends around $150m per launch, with estimates for missions to the moon set to cost more than $2bn.
The SpaceX Falcon rocket currently costs an average of $57m per launch. Musk has said future missions may one day cost as little as $2m each.
Today’s launch saw SpaceX send its 11th batch of Starlink satellites into orbit from Florida.
The aim is to build a constellation of satellites that allow every corner of the planet to access internet.
There are now more than 500 Starlink satellites orbiting Earth. Musk has previously said there would be around 12,000 by the project’s completion.
The news comes a day after Tesla’s share price rocketed 11 per cent on Monday and raised the billionaire’s net worth by $7.8bn, making him the fourth-richest person in the world.