Ultimate social distancing

31 May 2020 By Robert Cyran Follow @rob_cyran

Elon Musk’s reusable rockets have slashed the price of sending cargo into orbit, but his private $36 bln firm has yet to show that lower costs unleash untapped demand. Successfully launching humans delivers additional cash and political capital to chase bigger dreams.

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SpaceX successfully launched two American astronauts into orbit on May 30. It was the first manned launch from U.S. soil since 2011, and the first by a private company. In the intervening years, U.S. astronauts flew on Russian spacecraft.

The mission used SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and the company’s Crew Dragon capsule, which delivered the astronauts to the International Space Station on May 31. The crew will return to Earth on an unspecified date via the Crew Dragon.

On March 26, a securities filing showed privately held SpaceX raised $346 million in its latest funding round.

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