financials

That was also the year SpaceX launched its first 60 Starlink satellites. The company was spending plenty of cash on research and development, too — $559 million in 2018 and $661 million the following year. The Starlink program completed a milestone in 2019, when SpaceX launched the first batch of operational Starlink satellites in May of that year. The company ended the year with cash and cash equivalents of $868 million for 2018 and $990 million for 2019. The company launches its Starlink satellites with its own rocket, its Falcon 9 workhorse, which means it can launch the space-based internet satellites at unprecedented rates.