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Musk has also promised to invest more than $2 billion

April 20, 2018 by Katherine Berry

Musk has also promised to invest more than $2 billion in the U.S. in the next five years to support the company's launch and commercial services. It would run on a fleet of 3,000 Falcon 9 rockets and SpaceX's commercial space launch vehicle.

SpaceX has been making moves to upgrade its Falcon 9 rocket for its next stage rockets. It unveiled a new design for a Falcon 9 stage in March that uses smaller, more fuel-efficient aluminum fins, a smaller amount of oxidizer and an improved payload bay for the rocket in the fourth stage.

The company hopes to have the first stage operational by late 2018.

The $500 million round is part of the company's $1.25 billion investment in Orbital ATK, a U.S. company that recently announced plans to add a first stage and launch a fourth Falcon Heavy rocket to its fleet.

"We are very excited to work with Orbital ATK to provide a world-class launch vehicle to space travelers," said John Collins, Orbital ATK's chief executive officer. "We are thrilled to have Orbital ATK to support us on this mission. We look forward to working with SpaceX to advance our next generation of space exploration."

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Orbital ATK Chief Commercial Space Officer Terry Collins (left) shake hands on the launch of the next two Falcon Heavy rocket in the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket.

"If you look at our current business model, at a start, we get more than we get with our $1.50 billion investment in Orbital ATK," said Dennis M. Davis, Orbital ATK's chief financial officer. "And this is an extremely high-risk undertaking that has a real risk, high reward, and a potentially huge cost. This is an endeavor that we have absolutely no control over. It's hard to imagine SpaceX taking this risk."

Musk also said that the U.S. is one of his favorite markets for aerospace and space exploration. He's been working with SpaceX for several years and is also a SpaceX co-founder.

"It's important that this launch of a new rocket that will enable us to provide a huge boost to our space industry is going to be a huge success for us, for the U.S. and for the world," said Musk in an interview with SpaceX's Web site. "There are a few big advantages for us: the ability to launch a new launch vehicle, and the capacity to launch an entire rocket (from Earth to Mars). One of those is that