HAWTHORNE, Calif.–(EMWNews)–SpaceX, a privately-held space

launch services provider, has received a $20 million equity investment

from Founders Fund, a leading technology venture capital firm,

headquartered in San Francisco.

SpaceX joins Founders Fund’s

existing portfolio, which includes Facebook, Powerset, Slide and

Quantcast. Managing Partner Luke Nosek will join the SpaceX board as

part of the financing.

“Founders Fund has a track record of investing

in companies with the potential to revolutionize industries. We are

pleased to be included in their portfolio and welcome Luke Nosek to our

Board,” said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO, SpaceX. “Founders

Fund shares the SpaceX vision of creating a world-class company that

will shape the future through technological innovation.”

“We believe SpaceX will become the world

leader in space transport and we want our investors to be part of that

future,” said Luke Nosek, Managing Partner of

Founders Fund. “Having reviewed their

technology, outstanding engineering & business talent and the

infrastructure they have built, we are highly confident in the future of

the company.”

SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles and spacecraft intended

to increase the reliability and reduce the cost of both manned and

unmanned space transportation, ultimately by a factor of ten. With its Falcon

line of launch vehicles, powered by internally-developed Merlin

engines, SpaceX offers light, medium and heavy lift capabilities to

deliver spacecraft into any altitude and inclination, from low-Earth to

geosynchronous orbit to planetary missions. SpaceX currently has 11

missions on its manifest, plus indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity

(IDIQ) contracts with NASA and the US Air Force.

As a winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services

competition (COTS), SpaceX is in a position to help fill the gap in

American spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) when the

Space Shuttle retires in 2010. Under the existing Agreement, SpaceX will

conduct three flights of its Falcon

9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft

for NASA, culminating in Dragon berthing with the ISS. NASA also has an

option to demonstrate crew services to the ISS using the Falcon 9 /

Dragon system. SpaceX is the only COTS contender that has the capability

to return pressurized cargo and crew to Earth. The first Falcon 9 will

arrive at the SpaceX launch site at Cape Canaveral by the end of 2008,

in preparation for its maiden flight.

Founded in 2002, the SpaceX team now numbers over 500, located primarily

in Hawthorne, California, with four additional locations: SpaceX’s Texas

Test Facility in McGregor near Waco; offices in Washington DC; and

launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the Marshall Islands

in the Central Pacific.

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