Heady Tuesday for Elon Musk. Now the fourth richest man in the world. Largest ever SpaceX funding ($1.9B); the Falcon 9 booster rocket launched (and) landed for a record sixth time.

A filing dated Tuesday from billionaire Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (aka SpaceX) showed the giant space start-up raised $ 1.9 billion out of an equity offering of $ 2.07 billion, its largest funding round ever. (Yahoo Finance)

The funding round comes as Elon Musk becomes the fourth richest person in the world.

It was also an extremely successful day for his space baby SpaceX. The company’s two-stage Falcon 9 rocket flew its 40^th preflight, carrying 58 SpaceX Starlink satellites and three small SkySat satellites for imaging company Planet. B1049, the booster used for the flight, launched and landed for the sixth (another record) occasion. (Space.com)

With the latest funding, SpaceX has a reported post-money valuation of $46 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Investors welcome funding opportunity

The stellar run of successes in recent times by SpaceX has drawn investors’ appreciation and funds.

• In August, SpaceX became the first-ever private contractor to fly NASA personnel to and from the International Space Station
• The company may launch another crew next month, and perhaps, tourist flights next year.
• The space startup has launched over 600 satellites in its ambitious Starlink project for providing high-speed internet across the globe
• It recently landed a $316 million defense contract with the U.S. government to launch military satellites into orbit for five years starting in 2022.
• SpaceX’s avowed mantra of reusing rockets to reduce the cost of spaceflight is on track. According to Musk, the latest Falcon 9 rocket can fly 10 times without the need for refurbishment, and as many as 100 times before retirement.

SpaceX has not named the investors participating in the latest funding. According to TechCrunch, which quoted Bloomberg, Fidelity Investments was one of the largest of the 75 investors that contributed.

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