Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
According to an official statement released by the agency on Wednesday, the commercial space flight company will carry out 18 launches of its Falcon 9 rocket through the NSSL Phase 3, Lane 1. The launches, part of the agency's Space Based Sensing and Targeting (SBST) portfolio, will blast off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base and will be completed by the end of 2027.
Elon Musk Touts $100/kg Cost, Mars Touchdown
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, in response to investment firm ARK Invest's Brett Winton, who pushed back against heat shield criticism, said that heat shield costs would "drop well below $100/kg to orbit for Starship" if the rocket can achieve "immediate & complete reusability" with local production of Methane gas (CH4) and Oxygen.
Earlier, Musk had hailed SpaceX's 13th launch test of the Starship rocket, saying that the company had intentionally accelerated the rocket during its launch to test its heat shield capabilities.
Mars Goals
Separately, the SpaceX CEO reaffirmed the company's Mars goals. Peter Diamandis shared a snippet of NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman's appearance on his Moonshot podcast, where the NASA chief said that SpaceX had shifted its priority to the Moon, which could change the Mars timeline.
Musk, in response to Diamandis on X, said that SpaceX will target putting humans on Mars in "roughly 5 to 7 years." However, the SpaceX CEO then said that the timeline for the Mars lander will be "a few years sooner."
Isaacman had earlier reiterated SpaceX's role in NASA's Artemis program as well as its goals of establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon. The former Shift4 Payments Inc.
According to Benzinga Edge Rankings, SpaceX fails to provide a favorable price trend in the Short, Medium and Long term.
Price Action: SpaceX shares were up 0.55% to $113.17 during premarket trading on Thursday.
