December 2008: the week SpaceX and Tesla both survived
With both companies close to running out of money, a NASA contract and a Tesla financing round arrived within days of each other.
Archive entry. This article looks back at an event from December 23, 2008. It was drafted with AI assistance from public records and is being fact-checked. See our About page.
By late 2008, both of Elon Musk's companies were under severe financial pressure. The financial crisis had dried up funding, SpaceX had suffered three failed Falcon 1 launches before its first success in September, and Tesla was short on cash.
On December 23, 2008, NASA announced a Commercial Resupply Services contract worth about $1.6 billion, covering 12 cargo flights to the International Space Station on SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Dragon.
The next day, Christmas Eve, Tesla closed a financing round that kept it operating.
Why it mattered
Both companies came close to failing. Musk has since described that period as the lowest point of his career. The NASA contract in particular put SpaceX on a stable path to Falcon 9 and Dragon.
