HAWTHORNE, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
SpaceX, a privately-held space launch services provider, has
received a $20 million equity investment from Founders Fund, a leading
technology venture capital firm, headquartered in San Francisco.
SpaceX joins Founders Fund's existing portfolio, which includes
Facebook, Powerset, Slide and Quantcast. Managing Partner Luke Nosek
will join the SpaceX board as part of the financing.
"Founders Fund has a track record of investing in companies with
the potential to revolutionize industries. We are pleased to be
included in their portfolio and welcome Luke Nosek to our Board," said
Elon Musk, CEO and CTO, SpaceX. "Founders Fund shares the SpaceX
vision of creating a world-class company that will shape the future
through technological innovation."
"We believe SpaceX will become the world leader in space transport
and we want our investors to be part of that future," said Luke Nosek,
Managing Partner of Founders Fund. "Having reviewed their technology,
outstanding engineering & business talent and the infrastructure they
have built, we are highly confident in the future of the company."
SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles and spacecraft
intended to increase the reliability and reduce the cost of both
manned and unmanned space transportation, ultimately by a factor of
ten. With its Falcon line of launch vehicles, powered by
internally-developed Merlin engines, SpaceX offers light, medium and
heavy lift capabilities to deliver spacecraft into any altitude and
inclination, from low-Earth to geosynchronous orbit to planetary
missions. SpaceX currently has 11 missions on its manifest, plus
indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts with NASA and
the US Air Force.
As a winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
competition (COTS), SpaceX is in a position to help fill the gap in
American spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) when the
Space Shuttle retires in 2010. Under the existing Agreement, SpaceX
will conduct three flights of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle and
Dragon spacecraft for NASA, culminating in Dragon berthing with the
ISS. NASA also has an option to demonstrate crew services to the ISS
using the Falcon 9 / Dragon system. SpaceX is the only COTS contender
that has the capability to return pressurized cargo and crew to Earth.
The first Falcon 9 will arrive at the SpaceX launch site at Cape
Canaveral by the end of 2008, in preparation for its maiden flight.
Founded in 2002, the SpaceX team now numbers over 500, located
primarily in Hawthorne, California, with four additional locations:
SpaceX's Texas Test Facility in McGregor near Waco; offices in
Washington DC; and launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and
the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific.
SpaceX
Diane Murphy, VP / Marketing and Communications
1.310.363.6714
media@SpaceX.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008
