SpaceX weighs IPO next year

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the Hawthorne space transportation company founded by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, could pursue an initial public offering of stock next year.

“I think there’s a decent chance of an IPO toward the end of next year,” Musk said at the National Space Symposium conference in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Musk said his company, called SpaceX, did not need to do an IPO to complete Falcon Heavy, a rocket it is building with twice the lift capacity of NASA’s space shuttle that promises to cut launch costs.

Falcon Heavy is based on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, which has made two successful flights and which NASA has purchased to fly cargo to the International Space Station after the shuttle program ends this summer.

Another Musk company, Tesla Motors, went public last year.