Elon Musk might well mount an IPO for his SpaceX business somewhere down the line, but for the moment he seems happy to raise cash by issuing new equity. In a regulatory filing, SpaceX says it has raised a total of $1.164 billion over the past few weeks.

The company had already reported raising some $850 million back in February, which gave the rocket and broadband-by-satellite company a valuation of about $74 billion. Last August, SpaceX raised $1.9 billion according to Reuters.

The net total of this latest funding round places another $314 million or so into SpaceX’s coffers.

Somewhat coincidentally, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, on April 15th, said that her company will be providing a consistent global connectivity business by late this year and within 5 years will be using its larger Starship rocket to be carrying people within 5 years. Starship would be flying inter-continentally as well as – eventually – to Mars “before 2030”.

Shotwell said that SpaceX was targeting its broadband service to be global shortly after its scheduled 28th launch. Earlier in April it made its 23rd Starlink launch, so simple math suggests another 300 satellites need to be placed into orbit.

Shotwell also talked about its development of inter-satellite laser links, saying that Version 3 (SpaceX had already tested two iterations) of its laser-linked craft would be orbited in the next few months.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Intelsat C-band ‘insider trading’ case dismissed
2. UK Space Agency funds de-orbit scheme for OneWeb
3. AST SpaceMobile to launch satellites in August
4. SpaceRISE silent on reports of demise
5. Project Kuiper seeks India licence
6. FAA suspends SpaceX launches
7. SpaceX vs AST SpaceMobile 
8. Eumetsat explains Ariane 6 cancellation
9. AST SpaceMobile examines emergency call obligations

Categories: Blogs, Funding, Inside Satellite, IPO, Satellite

Tags: elon musk, spacex, starlink