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SpaceX’s latest Falcon 9 launches, landings featured in buried 4K video

(SpaceX)

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SpaceX has silently published an unlisted video featuring a range of new views – most in crisp 4K resolution – of Falcon 9 launch and landing operations from 2017 through the end of 2018, providing some of the most detailed perspectives yet of the company’s workhorse rocket.

Despite the oddly buried nature of the video, unlisted on YouTube and hidden in plain sight at the top of the company’s Falcon 9 website page, it still offers a hint of the sheer quantity of content SpaceX has acquired after multiple years of operations and dozens upon dozens of Falcon 9 launches. Even further, almost all of the clips included in the 60-second ‘overview’ are likely the original-quality recordings generated while simultaneously streaming the same perspectives featured in past SpaceX webcasts, a feat that requires significant compression and reduced quality.

Falcon 9 lands at SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1). (SpaceX)

Prior to a major website update that went live on March 3rd, 2019 (presumably coordinated to follow the successful launch of Crew Dragon), the Falcon 9 section of SpaceX’s website had been effectively untouched – aside from minor modifications to performance statistics and some written descriptions – since September 2015, a period of around 42 months. In March, SpaceX updated all of its website’s Falcon and Dragon sections, including new descriptions and the first official renders of Falcon 9 and Heavy in their latest Block 5 configurations, as well as a modernized section dedicated to the just-debuted Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Most notably, of course, was an unlisted YouTube video linked at the top of the Falcon 9 page, offering 4K views of launches as recent December 2018’s SSO-A, the first time ever that the same Falcon 9 booster flew for the third time. Booster B1046.3 kicked off the video with a truly spectacular perspective of the rocket lifting off from SpaceX’s Vandenberg Air Force Base launch pad, easily one of the most beautiful (and equally significant) Falcon 9 launches ever.

A spectacular Falcon 9 reentry sequence, showing a landing burn ignition. (SpaceX)

Above is another exceptional star of the Falcon 9 overview video, showing several pre-Block 5 boosters at different points during the final minute or so of their return-to-launch-site (RTLS) recoveries at one of SpaceX’s Landing Zones. Although the quality was inherently far lower, all of these angles are immediately familiar to anyone who has watched a significant number of SpaceX’s excellent launch webcasts, most of which end up featuring glimpses of streamed tracking shots like those above.

Aside from the quasi-public views featured in this video, the incredible success of reusability has lead SpaceX to routinely install dozens of cameras – often off-the-shelf GoPros and other action cams – throughout Falcon 9’s first stage, something that executive Hans Koenigsmann has stated has been a boon for improving reliability and better understanding what SpaceX rockets go through during launch, reentry, and landing. One can only begin to imagine the countless terabytes of footage SpaceX has gathered over years and dozens of launches.

Falcon 9 B1046.3 lifts off on December 3rd with Spaceflight’s 60-satellite SSO-A rideshare payload. (SpaceX)

Up next on SpaceX’s manifest is the second-ever launch of Falcon Heavy for what will be the powerful rocket’s commercial debut, nominally placing the 6000 kg (13,200 lb) Arabsat 6A communications satellite into a high-energy geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) as early as April 7th. This will further be the first launch of Falcon Heavy in a Block 5 configuration and will see both side boosters return to SpaceX LZ-1 and LZ-2, with the center core attempting a landing aboard drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) almost 1000 km (~600 mi) offshore. If all goes well and both side booster return in good condition, SpaceX could attempt to refurbish and fly both – along with a new Block 5 center core – on Falcon Heavy’s third launch as few as early as June, perhaps just two months after Flight 2.

Catch SpaceX’s 2018 “Falcon 9 Overview” in full below. Fingers crossed that SpaceX’s decision to publish this relatively unique video is a hint of more to come in 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsrn_ZLGqtM

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Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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SpaceX IPO could push Elon Musk’s net worth past $1 trillion: Polymarket

The estimates were shared by the official Polymarket Money account on social media platform X.

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Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Recent projections have outlined how a potential $1.75 trillion SpaceX IPO could generate historic returns for early investors. The projections suggest the offering would not only become the largest IPO in history but could also result in unprecedented windfalls for some of the company’s key investors.

The estimates were shared by the official Polymarket Money account on social media platform X.

As noted in a Polymarket Money analysis, Elon Musk invested $100 million into SpaceX in 2002 and currently owns approximately 42% of the company. At a $1.75 trillion valuation following SpaceX’s potential $1.75 trillion IPO, that stake would be worth roughly $735 billion.

Such a figure would dramatically expand Musk’s net worth. When combined with his holdings in Tesla Inc. and other ventures, a public debut at that level could position him as the world’s first trillionaire, depending on market conditions at the time of listing.

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The Bloomberg Billionaires Index currently lists Elon Musk with a net worth of $666 billion, though a notable portion of this is tied to his TSLA stock. Tesla currently holds a market cap of $1.51 trillion, and Elon Musk’s currently holds about 13% to 15% of the company’s outstanding common stock.

Founders Fund, co-founded by Peter Thiel, invested $20 million in SpaceX in 2008. Polymarket Money estimates the firm owns between 1.5% and 3% of the private space company. At a $1.75 trillion valuation, that range would translate to approximately $26.25 billion to $52.5 billion in value.

That return would represent one of the most significant venture capital outcomes in modern Silicon Valley history, with a growth of 131,150% to 262,400%.

Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, invested $900 million into SpaceX in 2015 and is estimated to hold between 6% and 7% of the private space firm. At the projected IPO valuation, that stake could be worth between $105 billion and $122.5 billion. That’s a growth of 11,566% to 14,455%.

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Other major backers highlighted in the post include Fidelity Investments, Baillie Gifford, Valor Equity Partners, Bank of America, and Andreessen Horowitz, each potentially sitting on multibillion-dollar gains.

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SpaceX considering confidential IPO filing this March: report

The filing could pave the way for a June listing at a valuation that may exceed $1.75 trillion.

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Credit: SpaceX/X

SpaceX is reportedly preparing to confidentially file for an initial public offering (IPO) as soon as March. The filing could pave the way for a June listing at a valuation that may exceed $1.75 trillion, potentially making it the largest IPO in history.

The update was initially reported by Bloomberg News, which cited information shared by people reportedly familiar with the matter. 

As per the publication, a confidential filing allows a company to receive regulatory feedback before publicly releasing its financials. Bloomberg’s source, however, noted that the timing of SpaceX’s IPO is still under discussion and plans could change.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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A March submission would mark the clearest step yet toward bringing Elon Musk’s private space company into public markets. People familiar with the preparations said the offering could raise as much as $50 billion. That would surpass the $29 billion debut of Saudi Aramco in 2019, currently the largest IPO on record.

Major banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America Corp. are reportedly positioned for senior roles in the transaction. SpaceX is also said to be considering a dual-class structure that would allow insiders, including Musk, to retain enhanced voting control.

Satellite communications provider EchoStar Corp., which holds a stake in SpaceX, reportedly saw its shares rise following news of the potential filing.

At a valuation exceeding $1.75 trillion, SpaceX would immediately have a larger market cap than all but five of the companies traded in the S&P 500 index. That figure would place it ahead of Meta Platforms Inc. and Tesla Inc. by market capitalization, trailing only a small group of mega-cap firms such as Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

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The scale of the proposed valuation reflects SpaceX’s dominance in orbital launch services and its Starlink satellite network, which serves millions of users globally. The company has also outlined long-term expansion plans tied to higher Starship launch cadence, orbital infrastructure, and lunar development initiatives.

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Elon Musk outlines plan for first Starship tower catch attempt

Musk confirmed that Starship V3 Ship 1 (SN1) is headed for ground tests and expressed strong confidence in the updated vehicle design.

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Credit: SpaceX/X

Elon Musk has clarified when SpaceX will first attempt to catch Starship’s upper stage with its launch tower. The CEO’s update provides the clearest teaser yet for the spacecraft’s recovery roadmap.

Musk shared the details in recent posts on X. In his initial post, Musk confirmed that Starship V3 Ship 1 (SN1) is headed for ground tests and expressed strong confidence in the updated vehicle design.

“Starship V3 SN1 headed for ground tests. I am highly confident that the V3 design will achieve full reusability,” Musk wrote.

In a follow-up post, Musk addressed when SpaceX would attempt to catch the upper stage using the launch tower’s robotic arms. 

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“Should note that SpaceX will only try to catch the ship with the tower after two perfect soft landings in the ocean. The risk of the ship breaking up over land needs to be very low,” Musk clarified. 

His remarks suggest that SpaceX is deliberately reducing risk before attempting a tower catch of Starship’s upper stage. Such a milestone would mark a major step towards the full reuse of the Starship system.

SpaceX is currently targeting the first Starship V3 flight of 2026 this coming March. The spacecraft’s V3 iteration is widely viewed as a key milestone in SpaceX’s long-term strategy to make Starship fully reusable. 

Starship V3 features a number of key upgrades over its previous iterations. The vehicle is equipped with SpaceX’s Raptor V3 engines, which are designed to deliver significantly higher thrust than earlier versions while reducing cost and weight. 

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The V3 design is also expected to be optimized for manufacturability, a critical step if SpaceX intends to scale the spacecraft’s production toward frequent launches for Starlink, lunar missions, and eventually Mars. 

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