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SpaceX no longer needs NASA, and that’s a problem for America’s space agency: “NASA desperately needs SpaceX, and SpaceX knows it, and Elon knows it.” (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 1 point 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

The majority of all funding for SpaceX comes from the government.

Well that's kind of the definition of "funding". What other funding would there be? If you mean revenue or income, I think that would be possible, but that claim could use a citation.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago* (2 children)

    I believe SpaceX is funded through a combination of private equity investment, US government contracts, starlink revenue, and fee contracts with the ISS and HLS.

    I can see your point with the technicality of the word funding. I was definitely using it as a catch all for all their revenue streams.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Ok, that sounds about right.

    And with all that in mind, I do think government funding is a significant part of their total income, but I would be very surprised if it made up for more than say 20%. I'm trying to keep in mind that less than 5% of their launches are actually for NASA. And honestly, being a telecom/ISP has been a lucrative racket from day one with the bell telephone company. (So I'm willing to bet that starlink is their cash cow)

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago

    You are correct, Starlink accounts for about 55% ($4,290 million out of $7,814 million) of their revenue. A closer examination reveals government contracts, not consumers, is the fastest growing market from 25% to 40% over the course of one year (2024 to 2025) of total Starlink revenue.

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