SpaceX's Starship Assembly Reaches Pad as Lock-Up Expiry Weighs on the Stock
Published on 09/24/2026 at 22:01 | Editorial boerse-global.de
The hardware is ready. Whether the market is, is another question entirely.
Early Wednesday morning at the Starbase launch site, SpaceX engineers hoisted Ship 41 onto the Super Heavy booster B21, completing the stack for Starship Flight 14 — the vehicle's first orbital test carrying paying cargo. The launch window opens no earlier than September 28, with the FAA having already posted a temporary flight restriction through October 7, though the formal launch license for the attempt has yet to be granted.
That milestone arrives against a backdrop of mechanical selling pressure that has little to do with rockets. On Thursday, as many as 328.4 million previously restricted shares became eligible for trading by early investors and employees — the latest tranche in a schedule that has been running since the company's June listing, following earlier releases in August and early September. At the prior day's close, the newly unlocked block carried a notional value of roughly $48.7 billion.
Insider Filing Adds to the Noise
Sentiment took a further knock when SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell filed a Form 144 signaling the planned sale of 342,170 shares worth just under $52 million. Cautious observers are quick to read such moves as a verdict on the company's own valuation, but the filing stems from a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan established in June and covers only a sliver of her stake of more than twelve million shares. The submission also accompanied a cash-settled option exercise.
The stock was quoted at EUR 129.78 on Thursday, down 0.4% on the day and 33% below its 52-week high. A separate reading put the price at EUR 129.58, off 0.6%. Further unlock tranches are due in October and after the upcoming third-quarter results.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SpaceX?
Flight 14 Is the Real Test
What matters more for the equity story is what happens after liftoff. Flight 14 is slated to travel at an altitude of roughly 275 kilometers, complete about six orbits of the Earth and last close to ten hours. Its payload is commercially usable: 26 Starlink V3 satellites destined for deployment in low Earth orbit, each adding 1 Tbps of network capacity for a combined 26 Tbps on this single mission.
Whether a launch system of this scale can genuinely become economic routine is the question on which the company's valuation ultimately turns. The transition from spectacular pioneering to the hard, calculable logistics of a new space economy is precisely what the activity along the Texas coast represents.
The Falcon Line Keeps Humming
While Starship waits for its orbital debut, the established launch business is running at an unprecedented cadence. On September 13, the company completed its 700th Falcon rocket launch, carrying three O3b mPOWER satellites for SES. Two days later came a mission for the U.S. Space Force, followed on September 19 by another 27 Starlink units lifting off from the California coast. NASA and SpaceX are targeting October 1 for the Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station.
NASA's recent award of three additional astronaut flights, worth a combined $946 million, brings the total value of the 17 contracted missions to $5.92 billion — a reliable revenue base beneath the long-term ambitions.
Wall Street Stays Constructive
Analysts have largely looked through the technical drag on the share price. Mizuho reiterated its Outperform rating with a $200 price target. Morgan Stanley sees fair value at $300, citing the interplay between connectivity and data-center infrastructure for artificial intelligence. Oppenheimer raised its twelve-month target on September 2 from $250 to $280.
The consolidation reflects that investors are not blind to the immense operational and regulatory hurdles involved. Each Starship development step consumes enormous resources, and delays in regulatory approvals are part of the daily routine. Should the flight fail or licensing slip further, the ambitious expansion plans come under time pressure. Pull off the mission as planned, and the company demonstrates that the vision of fully reusable heavy-lift transport is no longer distant science fiction — spaceflight sheds its exceptional status and becomes the industrial infrastructure of the 21st century.
Ad
SpaceX Stock: New Analysis - 24 September
Fresh SpaceX information released. What's the impact for investors? Our latest independent report examines recent figures and market trends.
