Elon Musk's SpaceX is now worth $21 BILLION making it one of the world's most valuable private companies
- SpaceX is known for ambitious plans to establish humanity's first colony on Mars
- It joins the elite club of venture-backed companies alongside Uber and Airbnb
- The company is also vying to become a major government contractor
- It the fourth most valuable private technology company in the US
SpaceX has become one of the the world's most valuable private companies.
The rocket maker, founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has raised $350 million (£268 million) in new financing and is now valued at around $21 billion (£16 billion).
It joins the elite group of venture-backed companies, that includes Uber and Airbnb, which are valued at more than $20 billion (£15 billion).
Its new valuable also makes it the fourth most valuable private technology company in the US.
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Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is based in Hawthorne, California, is known for ambitious plans to establish humanity's first colony on Mars and putting satellites into space
SpaceX, which is based in Hawthorne, California, is known for ambitious plans to establish humanity's first colony on Mars and putting satellites into space.
The company, which was valued at $14.6 billion (£11.2 billion) last year, is also vying to become a major government contractor.
The new financing was disclosed in a public findings from San Francisco-based marketplace Equidate, writes New York Times.
SpaceX's price per share is now $135 (£103) - up from $96.42 (£73.74) in February.
In terms of valuation, SpaceX now only trails behind Uber (worth $69.8 billion/ £53.4 billion), Airbnb ($31 billion/ £23.7 billion) and analytics company Palantir ($21.3 billion/ £16.3 billion).
WeWork, a co-working space startup, is the fifth most valuable US company valued at $20.8 billion (£15.9 billion).
Yesterday WeWork announced it had set up a Chinese unity with a $500 million (£382 million) investment from China's Hony Capital and Japan's SoftBank Group coorporation.
In this most recent valuation SpaceX overtook WeWork. SpaceX was in sixth place before Snap Inc went public in March.
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SpaceX is known for ambitious plans to establish humanity's first colony on Mars and putting satellites into space. Pictured is the SpaceX Falon rocket during launch
In September, Musk's SpaceX had a major set-back after a $200 million (£153 million) Falcon 9 rocket exploded on the launchpad.
However, it resumed work in January of this year and has already had 10 successful launches, with plans to launch a Falcon Heavy rocket by the end of the year.
In a scientific paper, the SpaceX billionaire says the only way of attracting enough people to build a settlement on the red planet would be to cut the cost of a one-way ticket.
The entrepreneur aims to get the price down of the ticket down to the cost of an average house in the US - or around $200,000 (£157,000).
A diagram showing SpaceX's milestones. The company launched the first orbital booster to return from space for ocean and ground landings
To achieve this within our lifetime, he will create the first 'Interplanetary Transport System' - a reusable rocket-and-spaceship hybrid powered by 42 SpaceX Raptor engines.
'I want to make Mars seem possible - make it seem as though it is something that we can do in our lifetime,' Musk said.
'There really is a way that anyone could go if they wanted to.'
The key to cutting the price of space travel is to build a high-power reusable rocket-and-spaceship hybrid, he said.
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