> The story so far has been that SpaceX will go public to raise the money to get to Mars

The idea of SpaceX being public makes me very nervous about the future of commercial space (though I really, really want them to succeed). Think back to when NASA lost people (Apollo 1, Challenger, Columbia) - these were seen as huge national tragedies followed by years of public scrutiny and gov't inquiry. But work pushed on, because their funding and momentum to continue with operations was decoupled from these reactions.

Now, imagine the first time SpaceX loses a human. If they are public, that could kill the entire company right there. Stock traders are not rational actors.