With a record of five failures and six partial successes in his Starship program, the 12th launch on May 22 of Elon Musk's BFR (as he and the boys used to call it before the PR people intervened) was critical for the success of the whole SpaceX enterprise. Doubts were growing, and the Initial Public Offering was only weeks away.
The IPO, due on June 12, is expected to raise up to $80 billion (2.93 trillion baht) for the company. Its only currently profitable sector is its telecommunications business (Starlink), but SpaceX's long-haul potential is a near-monopoly on launches and other space services for American and other players in the burgeoning space business.
That's what is giving SpaceX a predicted market valuation of between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion, but the richest man in the world is also the world's highest roller. That doesn't mean Mr Musk is a "confidence man": he really believes in his promises, and though he's not actually an engineer he is deeply involved in the engineering aspects of everything he builds.
