SpaceX completed a successful launch of the most powerful rocket in the world, the Falcon Heavy.
It’s just the latest successful launch for the rocket, which is expected to help land NASA astronauts on the Moon and potentially even send humans to Mars.
SpaceX recently completed a further venture capital raise, valuing the company at $127 billion.
Regular investors aren’t likely to be able to get in with SpaceX, but there are other ways to gain exposure to the private space sector and other cutting edge tech investments.
In all the hoopla surrounding Elon Musk’s privatization of Twitter, the sacked executives and the blue check mark commotion, it can be easy to forget that he also has a number of other side projects on the go.
If you can call aiming to colonize Mars a side project.
Elon Musk is surely the most prolific Founder and CEO of this generation and potentially, of all time. He’s currently the Founder and/or CEO of Tesla, Twitter, Neuralink, The Boring Company, OpenAI and SpaceX.
It’s kind of incredible that launching rockets into space blends in with the rest of his accomplishments, but here we are. SpaceX has now been around for a surprisingly long time. It first started back in 2002 and the aim even back then was to eventually develop technology that would enable the colonization of Mars.
Musk has spoken at length about the importance of the human race becoming a ‘multi-planetary’ species. This issue has come to the forefront in recent years with climate change causing concern for what Earth may look like in the future.
As you’d expect, progress in the space exploration sector is slow, but SpaceX has essentially created the private space industry, which is now seeing multiple new entrants including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
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The latest SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch was a success
This week SpaceX launched their Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in the world, for the first time in three years. Through a combination of technical problems and lack of demand for their ‘courier services’ during the pandemic years, it’s been a long time between drinks.
SpaceX operates the rockets on behalf of many other organizations looking to access space. Their clients are wide ranging and include NASA, as well as the space programs from other nations and even wealthy private individuals.
This latest flight carried satellites on behalf of the US military and as you might expect with a client like that, further details are somewhat hard to come by.
The Falcon Heavy is still relatively new, with this being only the fourth launch since its first one back in 2018. That turned out to be quite the event, with Elon Musk launching his personal Tesla Roadster into space as a test payload. It’s still out there, taking a long trip around the Sun and towards Mars.
There were two further launches in 2019, with one of these missions another satellite delivery for the US Department of Defense and the other the launch of a large TV and phone satellite for Saudi Arabian headquartered Arabsat.
That doesn’t mean that the SpaceX engineers have been sitting around drinking coffee since then. The Falcon Heavy is only required for larger payloads due to its enormous level of power. Because of that, the smaller Falcon 9 rocket is used much more frequently, having conducted almost 50 launches so far in 2022.
One of the defining features of the SpaceX rockets is their ability to land back on Earth. Previously, rockets were ditched into the ocean rendering them useless for future missions. By creating the technology to have them land back safely on the ground, SpaceX are able to re-use vital components which aims to bring the overall cost down.
It’s considered a vital piece of the puzzle for making future space travel viable and their competitors are following suit.
SpaceX’s upcoming missions
After the long break from using the Falcon Heavy, there are a number of exciting missions in the near future.
In 2023 the company is expecting to launch the world’s first private lunar mission, called dearMoon. The project is being funded by Japanese billionaire Yusaka Maezawa and will involve a fly-by of the moon with Maezawa and six to eight other civilians on board.
The purpose of the flight has been stated as an art project, with Maezawa hoping that the experience of space will inspire creativity, with the subsequent art works to be exhibited back on Earth to promote world peace.
These billionaires don’t think small do they.
The Falcon Heavy is also part of the grander plan for landing humans and cargo on the Moon and, eventually, on Mars. SpaceX have been developing their own spacecraft, Starship, to work in conjunction with the Falcon Heavy rockets, which will help NASA complete their first manned mission to the Moon since 1972.
For SpaceX, the Starship project is also the craft that they believe will be able to eventually be used to go to Mars.
Can you invest in SpaceX?
SpaceX is a fully private company, just as Twitter now is. That means that for regular investors, getting a piece of the SpaceX pie is likely to be impossible unless you’re on first name terms with Elon himself.
But it’s not surprising that many investors want in. SpaceX is now the largest venture capital backed private company in the world, with the latest round of funding putting it at a valuation in the region of $127 billion.
To put that into context, that makes it more valuable than companies such as Goldman Sachs, Intel, Unilever, American Express, Starbucks and BP.
That’s not to say you can’t invest into the private space sector at all. There are a number of players in the space (pun intended) that are listed on public markets, which means investors can buy into the industry.
However, it’s a high risk game. As you’d expect, space exploration requires enormous levels of startup capital and the potential for things to go horribly wrong are very, very high.
Some examples are private space company Momentus (MNTS) which has seen its stock plummet almost 90% over the past 12 months, Astra Space (ASTR) which is down 93.95% in the last year and even Richard Branson’s spinoff Virgin Galactic (SPCE) is down over 75% over the same period.
All of these went public via SPACs and it hasn’t been a good ride for investors since.
There are other ways to gain access to the space sector without betting on high risk startups. Many of the world’s major aircraft manufacturers are heavily involved in the sector. Boeing (BOE) helped send the Apollo 11 astronauts to the moon and they’re still working on rockets for NASA today.
Boeing is currently building the Space Launch System for NASA, which will work alongside SpaceX technology to send humans back to the moon. They also built the Starliner capsule which transports people to and from the International Space Station.
As well as their own projects, Boeing has a joint project with another publicly traded company, Lockheed Martin (LMT) to provide launch vehicles to Blue Origin, NASA and others.
Invest in cutting edge technology
Private space exploration is an emerging sector that is likely to continue to grow in coming years, but it remains high risk. With high risk comes the potential for high returns, but it’s more important than ever to ensure investors have enough diversification to weather the almost certain volatility.
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
