SpaceX
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 head to Pad 39A for historic launch debut
NASA has confirmed that a Feb. 27th launch readiness review (LRR) prior to the orbital debut of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft concluded with all parties remaining “go” for the historic launch.
Scheduled to liftoff at 2:48 am EST (07:48 UTC) on March 2nd, Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon can now begin to roll out to Launch Complex 39A (‘Pad 39A’) and complete final preflight checks approximately 24-48 hours before launch. After relentless work over the last few months, SpaceX has also largely completed a significant series of changes – many aesthetic – to Pad 39A, giving the historic complex a sleek new black and white paint scheme and enclosed tower (FSS).
And there's the confirmation the LRR was completed and with a GO. Rollout is next. Expect lots of cool photos especially with the 39A FSS now fully "cladded" compared to the photo in the tweet during the Static Fire test. https://t.co/SQHcd3Ahgo
— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) February 28, 2019
Falcon 9, Crew Dragon “go” for launch
Following up the Flight Readiness Review (FRR) five days later, the completion of the Launch Readiness Review (LRR) effectively means that SpaceX can now proceed into launch operations a bit like any other mission, rolling the rocket and spacecraft out to Pad 39A, taking the assembly vertical, and finally completing (relatively) routine preflight preparations. SpaceX pad engineers and technicians have already completed a wet dress rehearsal (WDR) and static fire test over the last two months, meaning that they have already gained a significant amount of real-world experience working with and operating the brand new Crew Dragon spacecraft and its human-rated Falcon 9 rocket.
This milestone has been the better part of a decade in the making, beginning in 2009 or 2010 (depending on definitions) with funding from NASA dedicated to what would ultimately become the Commercial Crew Program (CCP). SpaceX did not begin to receive rewards or dedicated Crew Dragon-related funding until April 2011, when NASA awarded the company $75M to develop the spacecraft’s proposed integral abort system, relying on a newly developed Super Draco engine. In August 2012, NASA awarded Sierra Nevada, SpaceX, and Boeing several hundred million dollars each to continue serious development of their respective crewed spacecraft and launch vehicles, followed in 2014 by firm long-term contracts with SpaceX and Boeing to bring their Crew Dragon and Starliner vehicles to fruition.
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- The integrated DM-1 Crew Dragon ‘stack’ rolled out to Pad 39A for the first time in the first few days of 2019. (SpaceX)
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- Crew Dragon and its crew-rated Falcon 9 went vertical at a launch pad (Pad 39A) for the first time ever on January 4th. (SpaceX)
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- Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 B1051 stand vertical at Pad 39A during preparations for a late January static fire test. (SpaceX)
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- SpaceX completed a successful static fire of the first Falcon 9 rated for human flight on January 24th. (SpaceX)
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- An official SpaceX render shows Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon lifting off from Pad 39A. (SpaceX)
Of note, SpaceX’s contract was valued at $2.6B, while Boeing received $4.2B, a full 60% more to complete an effectively identical task. Sadly, the US Congress systematically underfunded CCP during its formative years, largely a consequence of entrenched political and financial interests in preferentially funding NASA’s own SLS rocket and crewed Orion spacecraft above and at the cost of other rocket and spacecraft development initiatives. Insufficient funding likely contributed heavily to the years of delays subsequently suffered by the program and its commercial providers, pushing a nominal launch debut target from 2015 to 2017 before ultimately moving to 2018 and finally 2019, largely a result of unsurprising technical challenges faced by each provider as they entered into hardware- and testing-rich phases of development.
After approximately 5-6 years of concerted work, SpaceX and NASA are now as ready as they’ll ever be to conduct the first orbital launch of the Commercial Crew Program, to be followed as early as by Boeing’s own uncrewed orbital demonstration of its Starliner spacecraft. For those that have followed CCP for even part of its years-long saga, it’s more than a little surreal to be faced with the reality that such a milestone is barely two days distant.
Pad 39A: more than just a fresh coat
Meanwhile, SpaceX’s leased Pad 39A launch complex has undergone its own significant changes. Dating back to NASA’s Apollo Program, Pad 39A supported all but one of Saturn V’s 13 launches and more than 80 Space Shuttle launches before SpaceX took over the pad in 2014. In the five years the company has leased the facility, a range of changes have been made to the pad’s hardware, support facilities, and the primary metalwork known as service structures, one fixed (FSS) and one rolling (RSS). Aside from a bare skeleton of the RSS hinge, SpaceX has completely removed several hundred tons of Shuttle support hardware, while the FSS (the skyscraper-like rectangular tower) has remained largely unchanged, aside from the installation of a new level and Crew Dragon’s Crew Access Arm (CAA) on the ~110m (350 ft) tower.
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- Space Shuttle Atlantis prepares for STS-129’s Pad 39A launch, November 2009. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
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- 39A is seen here on February 11th, 2009 from a very similar angle to the 2009 photo of Shuttle Atlantis. (Tom Cross)
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- Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon vertical at Pad 39A. (SpaceX)
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- SpaceX technicians work on the tower and access arm, Feb. 11. (Tom Cross)
Most recently, the company has pursued a series of visually distinct changes to tower, painting it almost entirely black with white highlights and installing partially transparent black plexiglass panels along the full length of at least 2-3 of its four walls. While the paint color is almost certainly aesthetically motivated (it matches Falcon 9, Crew Dragon, and the access arm), the decision to enclose all or most of the FSS will likely be very well received the astronauts and technicians it will ultimately support, especially if SpaceX manages to keep out Florida’s notorious mosquitoes.
If SpaceX’s uncrewed DM-1 Crew Dragon demonstration is a success, the company could follow it up with Crew Dragon’s first launch with astronauts aboard as early as July 2019, officially returning 39A to active place in human spaceflight and marking the end of more than eight years spent without a domestic solution for transporting US astronauts into orbit.
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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently confronted worries about orbital data centers and launching satellites in mass quantities in space, as some voiced concerns about crowding.
Musk’s SpaceX plans to combat the issue of needing data centers by launching them into space instead of taking up valuable real estate on Earth. It has been a major point of SpaceX’s future, including its looming IPO, which could be the largest ever.
In a recent interview filmed at SpaceX’s Starlink terminal factory in Bastrop, Texas, Elon Musk directly addressed concerns that deploying large numbers of AI satellites for orbital data centers could crowd Earth’s orbit. His message was straightforward and reassuring: space is vast beyond human intuition.
“Space is really big,” Musk said. “It’s not like space is gonna get crowded. Space is enormous. If you actually look at it relative to the Earth, the satellites are so tiny you can’t even see them.” He emphasized that even zooming in makes a satellite appear large, but from a planetary perspective, they are minuscule specks.
Elon on concerns that AI satellites will crowd space:
“Space is really big. It’s not like space is gonna get crowded. Space is enormous. If you actually look at it relative to the earth, the satellites are so tiny you can’t even see them.” https://t.co/Mvr7NpL25Q pic.twitter.com/5Fi629Rii7
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 8, 2026
Musk pointed to SpaceX’s real-world experience operating roughly 10,000 Starlink satellites as evidence that large constellations can be managed safely. “We’ve got a pretty good idea of how to operate just really large constellations and do it safely,” he noted. SpaceX remains the only operator with meaningful experience at this scale, giving the company unique insight into tight orbital packing without compromising safety
The discussion highlighted SpaceX’s plans for “AI1” satellites—essentially orbiting racks of AI compute powered by massive solar arrays and cooled via radiative panels in space’s vacuum.
These satellites leverage proven Starlink V3 technology, making them simpler to design than communications satellites. A first-generation unit targets around 150 kW peak power, with a 70-meter wingspan for solar panels and radiators. Laser links will connect them to each other and the Starlink network, delivering low-latency access (on the order of a few milliseconds from low-Earth orbit).
FCC accepts SpaceX filing for 1 million orbital data center plan
Musk framed orbital data centers as a practical solution to Earth’s constraints on AI growth. Ground-based facilities face power shortages, water demands for cooling, and grid limitations. In space, constant sunlight (no day-night cycle), vacuum radiative cooling, and abundant solar energy offer clear advantages.
Production will ramp up at an expanded “Gigasat” factory in Bastrop, with solar manufacturing already underway and full AI satellite output expected at reasonable volume by the end of 2027. Starship’s rapid, high-volume launch capability, aiming for multiple flights per hour, will make massive deployment feasible.
Critics sometimes raise risks like space debris or Kessler syndrome, but Musk’s response underscores scale: even a million satellites would represent an imperceptible fraction of available orbital volume when viewed against Earth’s size. SpaceX’s automated collision avoidance and deorbiting designs for Starlink further mitigate concerns.
This vision ties into broader ambitions. Musk sees orbital AI compute as a step toward harnessing more of the Sun’s energy, advancing humanity on the Kardashev scale from a Type 0 civilization toward Type 1 and eventually Type 2. By moving power-hungry data centers off-planet, SpaceX aims to unlock orders-of-magnitude more compute while preserving Earth’s resources.
Musk’s comments should ease public anxiety. With proven operational expertise, incremental engineering, and the immensity of space itself, orbital data centers represent not overcrowding, but smart expansion into the final frontier.
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) stands to reap one of the most extraordinary returns in pension fund history thanks to a bold 2019 investment in SpaceX.
According to a recent report from The Globe and Mail, the Toronto-based fund invested roughly $300 million CAD (~$220 million USD at the time) in Elon Musk’s space company as its inaugural deal through the Teachers’ Innovation Platform.
At SpaceX’s anticipated $1.75 trillion IPO valuation, set for a mid-June debut on Nasdaq under ticker $SPCX, that stake could now be worth up to $11.6 billion USD. This would represent a roughly 50x return and easily become OTPP’s most successful single investment ever.
The fund manages $279 billion in assets for approximately 346,000 working and retired teachers in Ontario, potentially delivering an average boost of around $33,500 per member if fully realized.
SpaceX has filed its S-1 and plans to price shares at $135 each, aiming to raise a record $75 billion in what would be the largest IPO in history, surpassing Saudi Aramco. The company reported $18.67 billion in revenue for 2025, driven primarily by Starlink satellite internet growth and NASA contracts, though it continues to post significant losses tied to ambitious R&D in Starship and AI initiatives.
Important pieces moving forward include:
- Starlink Expansion: The satellite broadband service is scaling rapidly, targeting global connectivity, especially in underserved rural and remote areas. This segment offers massive recurring revenue potential as numbers climb.
- Starship and Reusability Leadership: SpaceX’s fully reusable Starship aims to slash launch costs dramatically, enabling frequent missions, Mars ambitions, and lucrative government/defense contracts. Success here could unlock exponential growth.
- AI and Diversification: Recent moves, including ties to xAI, position SpaceX in high-growth AI infrastructure, broadening beyond traditional aerospace.
- Validation Scrutiny: While the $1.75 trillion target excites investors, analysts like Morningstar value the company closer to $780 billion, citing high multiples (around 90x trailing revenue) and execution risks. A 180-day lockup period will prevent early investors like OTPP from selling immediately post-IPO.
The irony has not been lost on observers. Ontario’s government previously canceled a Starlink rural internet contract amid political tensions involving Musk, yet the pension fund’s savvy investment, made when SpaceX was valued around $33-36 billion, and Starlink was nascent, delivers outsized gains independent of politics.
For OTPP, this windfall strengthens its already solid 111 percent funding ratio and underscores the value of patient, innovation-focused capital allocation.
For SpaceX, the IPO marks a new chapter: greater transparency, access to public markets for talent retention and growth capital, and heightened pressure to deliver on its multi-planetary vision.
All eyes are fixed on whether SpaceX can justify its lofty valuation through sustained execution. For Ontario teachers, the returns are already stellar, but SpaceX, like other Musk companies in the past, has plenty of things to prove. Perhaps the most ideal person for the job is at the helm, hoping to bring the company to a massive valuation.
Elon Musk
SpaceX’s amended S-1 is sparking a major Tesla merger conversation
A single line in SpaceX’s amended S-1 just sent Tesla stock down 5% in one day.
A single line buried in SpaceX’s amended S-1 filing is doing more to move Tesla’s stock price than anything Tesla itself has announced in months. The clause, disclosed as SpaceX prepares for what could be the largest IPO in Wall Street history, states that the company “may issue a significant amount of equity in connection with future transactions.” While this may be seen as boilerplate language in S-1 filings, the historical ties between SpaceX and Tesla, and with Elon Musk reportedly discussing a possible merger with close colleagues, investors are interpreting it as something closer to a signal.
The concern among institutional investors like Gary Black, managing director of The Future Fund, pointed directly to the amended filing on X, saying it “strongly suggests more SPCX equity will be issued,” which could potentially be used to acquire Tesla. He estimated such a deal could be 28% dilutive to Tesla shareholders since SpaceX would likely command a significantly higher valuation multiple. Black added that institutional investors he knows hate the idea of a combination because they prefer pure plays over conglomerates, which he said “nearly always gravitate to the lowest common multiple.”
The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building
The bull case runs the math differently. Tesla influencer and retail shareholder advocate AleXandra Merz pushed back on what she called a widespread misunderstanding of how merger-of-equals deals actually work. Rather than simply splitting the difference between two market caps, a merger exchange ratio is negotiated based on relative fair market values, meaning the lower valued company typically sees its stock reprice upward toward the deal value.
Under her model, SpaceX enters at a $2.5 trillion valuation and Tesla at $1.6 trillion, producing a combined entity worth $4.1 trillion split evenly between both shareholder groups. That implies Tesla’s side of the deal would be valued at $2.05 trillion, a gain of roughly $450 billion from its current market cap. She cited Dow-DuPont and CBS-Viacom as historical examples of how markets reprice both companies toward the announced exchange ratio after a deal is unveiled.
What does a Merger of Equals mean to Elon’s compensation packages?
Well, it changes everything.
Enjoy https://t.co/uekCldyITw pic.twitter.com/kolq1C9qTu
— AleXandra Merz 🇺🇲 (@TeslaBoomerMama) June 1, 2026
The SpaceX S-1 amendments also revealed just how much financial infrastructure already binds the two companies together. As Teslarati has reported, SpaceX purchased $697 million in Tesla Megapacks, $131 million in Cybertrucks, and the two companies have shared supply chain resources, and semiconductor fabrication plans since well before any merger conversation became public. A retail poll by Tesla influencer Sawyer Merritt is finding that 36% of respondents do not plan to buy SpaceX shares at IPO and 15.3% saying their decision depends on the valuation.
Do you plan on buying @SpaceX stock at its IPO?
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 1, 2026
Whether the merger happens or not, the amended filing is seemingly moving markets and sharpened a debate that is no longer theoretical. SpaceX is weeks away from trading publicly, and Tesla shareholders are now watching every word of every filing for clues about what Musk plans to do next.
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