The American rocket company pioneering rocket re-usability, SpaceX, is expected to secure over US$2 billion in equity following a capital raise set to end in August. This is the second round of financing this year for the company and follows an increased round that ended in May, raising US$346 million. A recent valuation of the company valued it at over US$44 billion.
This second larger round comes at a high point for the company. At the start of the month the Demo-2 mission ended in which American astronauts were launched to, and returned from the ISS using an American system. A combination of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule. Also during August, SpaceX was one of two beneficiaries (alongside ULA) of a multi-year contract with the US DoD for launch military satellites – SpaceX received 40 per cent of the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract.
Dealing in more down-to-Earth monetary values, iSpace, China, has reportedly raised US$172 million (Chinese Yuan 1.2 billion) in a Series B round of financing. iSpace is one of the officially private Chinese firms developing small-medium launch vehicles. It completed its first orbital mission in July 2019. Investors in this round of financing include; Beijing Financial Street Capital Operation Center, CICC Alpha, Taizhonghe Capital, alongside returning investors. A previous Series A round raised US$100 million for the company.
These funds will reportedly allow for the continuation of development on their Hyperbola line of vehicles. The current Hyperbola-1 vehicle is based on a classic, four-stage, expendable, solid, rocket architecture. However, its upcoming Hyperbola-2 rocket will be larger and is expected to utilise both liquid oxygen-methane engines and a re-usable first-stage. The maiden launch for this new variant is planned for late-2021.
