Given the troubles in the tech sector, it makes sense that SpaceX would try and stretch its existing cash for now. 'We do not anticipate needing to raise funding,' he said in response to a question from Reuters.īut Starship will take multiple years to bring to market, and it likely will need additional money, says analyst Chris Quilty. SpaceX did not respond to NPR's request for comment about how it's planning to finance Starship, but Elon Musk told listeners at his briefing that, for now, the company's existing investments and government contracts should be enough to keep the program going. 'I think we're seeing the market start to adapt.'

Already, he says, some startups are planning giant satellites and other projects that would require Starship's huge cargo bay. 'I think it'll take some time,' he says, but he believes companies will find ways to use Starship's enormous launch capacity. If Starship can work, it will allow SpaceX to launch Starlink satellites cheaply, and will likely enable many more companies to develop new space business models, says Brendan Rosseau, a research associate at Harvard Business School who tracks space. 'Who is Starship going to serve? I think that's a question,' she says. And investors have been lining up to plow money into its bold vision and big projects. It's valued at close to $140 billion, making it one of the biggest private companies in the country. That would be a problem for most space launch companies, but SpaceX is different.

'Until Starship is flying and the development costs are down and it's generating revenue instead of consuming cash, and until they start getting new Starlink satellites on orbit, I think it'll be a challenge for them,' he says. But Quilty and other analysts believe Starship and Starlink will keep the company in the red for a while. SpaceX makes money launching commercial and government satellites on its existing rockets, and it's starting to generate income from Starlink. 'It's hard to imagine how they could be generating cash with those level investments,' says Chris Quilty, the founder of Quilty Space, a company that tracks the space industry. Space SpaceX's massive rocket Starship explodes 4 minutes after liftoff

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