"A top executive at SpaceX said key business lines are making money, discussing how parts of the privately held company are performing.
Gwynne Shotwell, who for years has led SpaceX as president alongside Elon Musk, said this week that one of its main rocket-launch offerings that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration relies on had become a moneymaker for the company.
Starlink, its division that provides satellite-enabled high-speed broadband, is expected this year to begin making money as well, she said. In 2022, she said that Starlink had a cash-flow-positive quarter, excluding launch-related costs.
Ms. Shotwell's discussion of those businesses provides some information about aspects of the company's financial position. Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the formal name for the Hawthorne, Calif., company founded by Mr. Musk, doesn't release financial statements or operational details the way that companies with publicly traded shares do.
It couldn't be determined how Ms. Shotwell was measuring the moneymaking capacity of the businesses that she referenced. A SpaceX spokesman didn't respond to requests for comment.
Funds those services are generating and others are being invested into company development projects, Ms. Shotwell said. That includes Starship, the towering rocket that SpaceX is now preparing for an inaugural test launch.
"Cash flow from those operations basically pay for our development. Where it falls short we take external investment," she said following an appearance at a space-industry event.
Executives at the company have previously discussed how it has been paying for the vehicle before, with Mr. Musk saying in November 2021 that the company had internally provided funding for nearly all of Starship, according to a CNBC report from that time.
The company delivered small operating profits in 2013 and 2014 but lost money in 2015 after one of its cargo-carrying rockets exploded, The Wall Street Journal previously reported after reviewing internal company documents.
In recent years, the company has increased the pace of its launch operations and built Starlink into a business with more than one million subscribers.
SpaceX's Starship vehicle is intended to handle a moon landing of NASA astronauts, under a contract it won from the agency in 2021 and eventually attempt a mission to Mars that Mr. Musk has long discussed.
It consists of a 230-foot-tall booster called Super Heavy that would power a 164-foot-tall spacecraft, also called Starship, into orbit, SpaceX has said. The latter ship is designed to carry cargo or crew to a variety of locations in space.
The vehicle's development has prompted the company to make significant investments, including in staff, a new engine, production facilities and ground infrastructure to support launches.
SpaceX has tapped outside investors multiple times in recent years to support its growth plans. The company's valuation has soared, and SpaceX recently has looked to boost it to roughly $140 billion as part of an employee stock sale.
SpaceX also has been investing in Starlink and developing a new Starlink-related manufacturing facility outside of Austin, Texas, according to local officials.
On Wednesday, Ms. Shotwell said part of the company's challenge has been developing Starship and Starlink at the same time. Pursuing that work concurrently requires "a lot of money, every year," she said.
Ms. Shotwell said that SpaceX needs to put Starship through its paces ahead of handling the moon landing with NASA astronauts on board.
The company plans to use Starship to deploy Starlink satellites before any human flight, she said.
"We need to get a lot of time on that machine," she said. "We don't want the 15th flight to be carrying people."
One of the moneymaking operations at the company Ms. Shotwell mentioned -- the combination Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft -- is heavily used by NASA to ferry astronauts and equipment to the International Space Station.
Last year, for example, NASA awarded SpaceX additional crewed flights to the space station using those vehicles, raising the value of that contract to more than $4.9 billion from $2.7 billion. SpaceX has also used the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft on private flights, such as a four-person 2021 trip funded by a technology entrepreneur." [1]
1. SpaceX Predicts Satellite-Internet Unit Profit
Maidenberg, Micah. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 10 Feb 2023: B.1.
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