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takyon writes:

Following SpaceX's nearly back-to-back rocket launches this week, Morgan Stanley analysts released a report praising SpaceX's reusable rocket technology and predicting a big valuation for the company. But the value is expected to be in satellite-based broadband rather than mundane and cheap rocket launches:

SpaceX could become a $50 billion juggernaut through its launch of a satellite broadband network, a team of Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a report Thursday. The private space company on Wednesday launched its 15th rocket this year, and the second this week. More importantly, the Falcon 9 rocket launch was the third time SpaceX reused the first stage booster, and with each of these so-called "flight-proven" launches, it should be easier to attract new customers.

Morgan Stanley says SpaceX developing reusable rockets is "an elevator to low Earth orbit." "When Elisha Otis demonstrated the safety elevator in 1854, the public may have struggled to comprehend the impact on architecture and city design. Roughly 20 years later, every multistory building in New York, Boston, and Chicago was constructed around a central elevator shaft," Morgan Stanley said. "It all comes down to SpaceX."

Reducing the cost to launch a satellite to about $60 million, from the $200 million that United Launch Alliance charged through most of the last decade, was a monumental breakthrough. SpaceX is trying to reduce its cost to $5 million per mission, and Morgan Stanley says the launch business "generates limited operating income." The cash cow, to Morgan Stanley, is the SpaceX plan to launch a satellite broadband network in two years and send humans to Mars in seven.

Counterpoint at Business Insider and an even higher guesstimate at NextBigFuture.

Previously: SpaceX Successfully Launches and Lands its Third Used Falcon 9 Rocket (Second Launch in Three Days)

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