The current financing round, in which SpaceX hoped to raise $1.725 billion, was disclosed in securities records on Monday and comes as the company continues to invest heavily in the construction of its Starship rocket and the Starlink broadband internet satellite constellation.
Earlier in the day, SpaceX received long-awaited certification from the Federal Aviation Administration that its Starship development site in Boca Chica, Texas, had no significant environmental impact, clearing a major obstacle in the building of the Mars rocket.
According to SpaceX, the FAA imposed over 75 conditions, bringing the company “one step closer to the first orbital flight test of Starship,” as it highlighted on Twitter. Starship’s maiden orbital flight test represents a significant milestone in the spacecraft’s development.
Since 2019, SpaceX has launched over 2,600 satellites into orbit as part of its Starlink satellite business, with the goal of providing worldwide broadband internet
In other news, SpaceX’s massive Starship vehicle could begin taking to the sky in earnest this summer. Starship is made up of Super Heavy, a large first-stage rocket, and Starship, a 165-foot-tall (50-meter) upper-stage spacecraft. SpaceX is developing a vehicle to transport people and products to the moon, Mars, and other parts of the solar system.
Starbase, the company’s South Texas facility near Boca Chica, has conducted several high-altitude test flights using Starship upper-stage prototypes. It’s also getting ready for SpaceX’s first orbital test flight, which Elon Musk, the company’s founder and CEO, has suggested might happen soon.
If the test campaign for Starship goes well, the vehicle might travel a long distance in the next years. Starship was chosen as the first crewed lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis mission, which aims to land astronauts on the moon in 2025 or 2026. Despite his tendency for setting very aggressive targets for his businesses, Musk has expressed confidence that Starship will be able to launch people to Mars in the same approximate time period.
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