Mr. Musk targeted 27 launches for this year; its high-water mark is eight. By 2019, he projected SpaceX will launch 52, or one a week, according to the documents.

A longstanding phrase on SpaceX’s website said it was “profitable and cash-flow positive.” The internal financial documents reviewed by the Journal, though, show an operating loss every quarter, and also negative cash flow of roughly $15 million.

Three weeks after the September accident, SpaceX removed the phrase from its website, suggesting both profit and cash flow had moved into the red for 2016. Senior SpaceX officials haven’t made public statements about the company’s profitability.

SpaceX plans to eventually launch its own constellation of over 4,000 communications satellites—about 70 times the size of any current communications array—to provide global internet access, forecasting the first phase to go online by 2018, according to the documents.

Rival OneWeb Ltd., of Arlington, Va., is ahead on its plan to provide internet service from more than 640 satellites. OneWeb, which has priority rights internationally to radio frequencies needed to deliver internet signals, last month raised $1 billion from Japan’s SoftBank Group and is already lining up suppliers and building a factory in Florida to make its satellites.

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