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Updated Dec. 22, 2015: Eager investors want to know if SpaceX stock is any closer to hitting the market - possible IPO in 2016? - especially after today's news from Florida...
Last night, the company accomplished a historic landing. Ten minutes after its Falcon 9 rocket launched to carry 11 satellites into space, the rocket's booster touched back down safely in a vertical, pinpoint landing in Cape Canaveral.
That means the booster can be reused - greatly diminishing the cost of space travel.
This third attempt at booster recovery came after two unsuccessful tries. The first time, the Falcon 9 booster crashed and exploded after running out of hydraulic fluid on return. The second time, it was slightly off kilter and tipped over.
"The Falcon has landed," SpaceX's launch commentator said in a webcast of the event. Applause, cheers, and "U.S.A." chants erupted at SpaceX's California headquarters. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter:
Musk's moonshot private space exploration company is situated like a key in the doorway to an entire new wave of tech.
The young entrepreneur is working hard to make SpaceX the preeminent commercial space flight firm in the world...
SpaceX Dragon launched into low-earth orbit atop SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Dec. 8, 2010.
The company has booked nearly 50 launches through 2017, expected to bring in roughly $5 billion in sales. SpaceX was the first commercial company hired by NASA to ferry supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). And it won another contract, along with Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), to fly astronauts to the station.
SpaceX aims to send humans to Mars' surface within 10 to 20 years. In a July 2013 interview with The Guardian, Elon Musk said he'd like to fund a colony of 80,000 people on the red planet - and become a colonist himself. "The key thing for me is to develop the technology to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars. That's the ultimate awesome thing." At a forum last year, Musk noted "there are no runways on Mars." In other words, rockets would have to land using the thrust of their engines - like the Falcon 9 booster did today.
On top of all that, SpaceX remains consistently cash-flow positive, and has venture backing.
Imagine the returns if you owned a chunk of SpaceX stock the day the news breaks that alien life exists...
Owning SpaceX stock would be like owning Google stock when the company unlocked a way to organize and search data on the web - shares went up 179% their first year on the market. Search rivals that sprung up later, like Yahoo and Bing, have never caught up (more than two-thirds of the world's Internet searches were made through Google in 2013, the most recent available data).
But there's a big obstacle preventing investors from snapping up SpaceX shares: it is still privately held and hasn't made any announcements to change...
When Can You Buy SpaceX Stock?
Money Morning Defense & Tech Specialist Michael A. Robinson, a 34-year Silicon Valley veteran and one of the top tech financial analysts today, thinks eventually we will be able to invest in SpaceX stock.
"[Musk] hasn't yet announced plans to take SpaceX public, but I believe that's what he'll do. I base that on what happened with Tesla," Robinson said on Oct. 14, 2014.
We can piece together a few telling clues from Musk himself...
I think the estimate is that it takes three light years to get to Mars. What would we do IF we ever got to Mars, –mess it up as is being done here? Let's clean up Planet Earth, there's plenty to do here. We can start with cleaning up the ocean. People running from one doctor to the next trying to find decent medical care but can't find it. We've spent billions on space when the money is needed right here. Come on people, let's use some common sense.
"I think the estimate is that it takes three light years to get to Mars." – Which grade are you? At closest range it's .00000589429108 light years, which is 34,649,589 miles.
Mess up Mars? At its current state? There is nothing there to ruin. You assume athat because people invest in space that there is no money spent on Earth. Think Tesla Motors, Solar City, and the now battery for home storage, also fusion research if thats what you prefer. Also Desalination as energy becomes cheaper. Moreover, there will be money spent anywhere and circulated at least. People spending money on space also care about Earth, the environment. People (with jobs)get paid for it, marketers, suppliers, engineers, scientists, geologists, develepors, manufacturers whom they also donate money to good cause projects or organizations .
Whats a couple billion dollars for significant new scientific discoveries yet to be found with space exploration. Thats nothing we spent 600+ billion sending troops to protect democracy wink wink (protect oil wells). America would have trillions if GE, Google, OU Pont, verizon, and many more companies paid there taxes like we all do. They get to send there money to offshore accounts and pay ZERO in taxes. WERE NOT BROKE. Mars is step 1 Titan is step 2. If we go to Titan and bring just a little Helium3 from saturn we will be much closer to nuclear fusion..which is the key to energy and much cheaper space exploration.
If the major corporations pay the taxes you suggest, you will pay a substantial premium for their products and the "trillions" you suggest we would have will be evaporated through a process called inflation. Corporations will not reduce their margins just because they now pay taxes. So, all you have achieved is an increase in the size of big government and a reduction of the purchasing power of the individual. Do you think the government can more appropriately spend your money than you can? I'm not even sure what your point is… that government should be funding space exploration? I think that SpaceX is a defining example that this is not necessary.
Light year is a unit of distance. It doesn't take 3 years at the speed of light to reach mars.
If we don't leave Earth, we are eventually going to run into a planet killing asteroid, or other existential risk that would wipe out humanity. Hawking, Musk, Tyson, every forward thinking scientist says space is critical if we want humanity to be anything other than a blip on a cosmological timescale. Space or extinction.
no, not three light years to mars…4 light years to alpha centari the next nearest star (50,000 years with current technology)
Mars takes 6-8 months, at the moment ; )
Just to be clear: a light-year is a measure of distance (how far light can travel in one year), not time.
Umm might want to check your math again. It only takes months to get to Mars. That's using current tech. Odds are there'll be a boom in propulsion tech with the market going private from govt.
I have no idea where you're getting you're information, but you're wrong on so many levels.
1. A lightyear is a unit of distance, not time. It takes ~260 days to reach Mars.
2. Assuming you were talking distance: Mars is about one ten-thousandth of a lightyear away. Not 3.
3. The technology that comes out of investments in spaceflight technology significantly help Earth. They have for decades, and will continue to.
One light year is a measure of distance, the distance light travels in a vacuum given one year.
CHASING MOONBEAMS
SPACE X is a clear indication that the stock market is close to a top and peak in investor sentiment, as well. Only when such grandiose ideas are taken seriously can one spot an extreme in bullish sentiment, circa 1929. Pretty soon, they will be singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star…." like space scientists at JPL. Then, its back to earth in real time ( reentry).
OK, Mars not so attractive short term!, maybe too far away for now; BUT the moon and all
its' possibilities for use as a practical space station, future launching site to who knows where, not to mention mining its' vast resources, can literally be reached in days!
Elon and SpaceX are the new Chris and his 3 boats. I don't want a seat on the boats but I would like to be waiting back on earth with the Queen of Spain. I'm in line, let me buy some stock ASAP! By the way, how did that made in a garage green screen calculator thingy workout?
@v. Goodnight: You miss the entire point of why we should strive to reach Mars. "We Stopped Dreaming" – Neil deGrasse Tyson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbIZU8cQWXc