Launch provider
Appears in 45 stories · Last updated Nov 11, 2026
Dominant U.S. launch operator
The FAA published two proposed rules in the Federal Register on Nov. 9. One clarifies when a rocket operator must abort a flight; the other lets companies show a falling vehicle would break apart enough to avoid multiple deaths on the ground.
Updated 3 hours ago
Both AST's launch provider and its rival
AST SpaceMobile has 13 of its large BlueBird satellites in orbit and says it expects initial, intermittent coverage in the United States, Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Britain by the end of 2026. The Texas company now aims to have about 45 satellites in orbit by mid-2027, later than its earlier target of the end of this year.
Updated 8 hours ago
Building a hybrid satellite and ground 5G network; picked Qualcomm for infrastructure and awaits FCC approval of its spectrum deals
SpaceX agreed to buy nationwide 800 MHz spectrum from Grain Management for about $8 billion, and it is buying EchoStar's wireless licenses in a deal that has grown to roughly $20 billion. The airwaves let Starlink Mobile reach phones on the ground, including indoors.
Updated 2 days ago
Launching a NASA payload on Falcon 9 under Impulse's first task order
NASA will pay Impulse Space to move cargo most of the way to the Moon. On Nov. 7, 2026, the agency gave the Redondo Beach company two task orders under its Moon Base program, with flights scheduled to begin in 2028.
Updated 4 days ago
Falcon 9 will launch the CAPSTONE-2 mission
NASA on Nov. 7 named the companies that will ferry cargo between Earth orbit and the Moon, and Quantum Space's Ranger tug made the list. Flying on an Arrow Science and Technology team, Ranger is slated to carry NASA's CAPSTONE-2 spacecraft toward lunar orbit under a $185 million award, about 25% of which goes to Quantum.
Built and launched the USSF-432 mission
A Falcon 9 lifted off from California's central coast on the evening of Nov. 6 carrying a payload the Pentagon will not describe. It was the fourth launch in a classified series that outside tracking says has placed 23 satellites in orbit each time.
Developing Starship Human Landing System; will launch a Starship Version 3 test article for Artemis III docking demonstration in 2027
Artemis II returned four astronauts from a trip around the Moon in April 2026, the first crewed lunar flight since Apollo 17 in 1972. On October 23, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman outlined a faster path to the surface: a 14-day Artemis III test in 2027, then a crewed landing in 2028.
Updated 6 days ago
Controls the Starlink and Starshield networks Ukraine relies on
Ukraine's Operation Vivaldi pushed Russian forces back 277 square kilometers in the Donbas, freeing 16 settlements. The campaign collapsed an attempted Russian pincer around Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the fortress cities it was meant to encircle.
Updated 7 days ago
Filed with the FCC in July 2026 for 100,000 Gen3 satellites; more than 10,900 Starlink satellites in orbit as of August 2026
In December 2025, a newly formed Chinese state institute filed for 200,000 satellites with the International Telecommunication Union, claiming spectrum priority for the largest constellation ever proposed. Early filers get priority on orbital slots and radio frequencies, which amounts to buying options in low Earth orbit.
Updated Nov 3
Signed a binding commitment for a $40 billion Apollo-backed chip lease, due to close before the end of 2026; reported $7.6 billion in third-quarter AI revenue
SpaceX signed a binding commitment for a $40 billion lease that lets an Apollo Global Management entity buy Nvidia chips and rent them back to the company. The Vera Rubin hardware is due in the first half of 2027, and the deal is expected to close before the end of 2026.
Updated Nov 1
Carried the prototype to orbit; separately developing its own orbital compute
On October 1, a Google prototype satellite rode a SpaceX Falcon 9 into low Earth orbit carrying four Tensor Processing Units, the chips Google builds for machine learning. After about three weeks of checking out its subsystems, the spacecraft took a prompt from the ground on October 30: a chip running Google DeepMind's Gemma 4 model wrote a haiku about being in space, downlinked as the satellite passed over Svalbard, Norway.
Confidential Nasdaq IPO filing submitted April 1, 2026; reports at the time put the targeted valuation near $2 trillion; a June 2026 listing was targeted
AEVEX Aerospace, a maker of military drones and airborne surveillance systems, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on April 17, 2026, under the ticker AVEX—and its first day answered a central question about the defense tech IPO wave. Shares opened at $23.01 and closed at $26.93, a 34.7% gain that pushed its market capitalization to roughly $3 billion, well above the $2.35 billion valuation at pricing.
Updated Oct 29
Data-sharing partner with US Space Force
The US Space Force has given SpaceX access to Vector Covariance Messages, its most precise orbital tracking files. No other private firm has routine access to the data, which carries the military's error margins for objects in orbit.
Updated Oct 27
Launch provider for Tranche 1 missions
The Space Development Agency (SDA) launched the fourth batch of Tranche 1 data transport satellites on Oct. 10. The 21 Northrop Grumman-built spacecraft bring the total on orbit to 84 of 154 planned operational satellites.
Updated Oct 26
Trades on Nasdaq as SPCX. Reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $14.6 billion and net income of $4.4 billion, its first profit since listing, and closed the $60 billion Cursor purchase
SpaceX is now a profitable public company. Third-quarter results reported October 20 showed $4.4 billion in net income on $14.6 billion in revenue, up 161% from a year earlier.
Updated Oct 23
Flew Starship to orbit for the first time on September 28, 2026, then brought Ship 40 from Flight 13 back to Starbase in October for inspection.
Starship reached orbit for the first time on September 28, 2026, deploying 26 next-generation Starlink satellites. One Raptor 3 engine shut down during the climb, and SpaceX ended the flight early, splashing the ship down in the northern Pacific instead of spending hours in orbit.
Provided thruster technology and hosted the unveiling at its McGregor test site
Tesla showed the second-generation Roadster at SpaceX's McGregor, Texas, test site on Oct. 15. The two-seater used a suction system to drive upside down on a ramp, spun in midair and landed on cold gas thrusters. Tesla is taking $50,000 deposits for the Performance version and $250,000 for the Thrust version; the Rocket trim, with a full flight system, is invite-only.
Updated Oct 21
Major Pentagon contractor; Musk is chief executive
Project Meridian is underway. Led by Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, and Newt Gingrich, the Pentagon study met first in a classified room at Quantico on September 30. Oversight now sits with the nonprofit MITRE Corporation.
Updated Oct 18
As of October 2026: Launch provider and capsule builder for Crew-13
SpaceX sent four astronauts to the International Space Station on Thursday, and their capsule caught up with the lab in 7 hours 55 minutes. That's the fastest launch-to-docking trip of any American spacecraft.
Updated Oct 1
As of September 2026: Acquiring refuge land for test site expansion
A federal judge in South Texas cleared the way Sept. 21 for SpaceX to take title to 715 acres of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. In exchange, the company gives the government 683 acres of private land, expanding Elon Musk's rocket test facility near Starbase.
Updated Sep 21
As of September 2026: Flew Planet's Pelican-11 in July 2026
Planet Labs posts the orbital position of every satellite it flies, 97 of them, in one open file anyone can download. The same company delays or withholds its imagery of Middle East conflicts. Both moves respond to one fact: satellite data shapes war.
Updated Sep 10
As of August 2026: Acquirer; deal closed Aug. 14, 2026, with Cursor folded into SpaceXAI
SpaceX went public on June 12 in the largest stock-market debut ever. Five days later, it agreed to spend $60 billion on Cursor, an AI coding tool barely three years old. The all-stock deal closed on Aug. 14.
Updated Aug 31
As of August 2026: Running record Falcon 9 cadence while pushing Starship toward a first Florida launch in 2026
SpaceX broke its own turnaround record on August 15, launching two Falcon 9 rockets 38 minutes apart from Florida and California. One carried Globalstar satellites from Cape Canaveral; the other flew a classified Space Force mission from Vandenberg, capping a stretch that included the year's 51st West Coast launch and 94th Falcon 9 flight overall.
Updated Aug 16
As of August 2026: Both AST's launch vendor and its main rival
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 3:42 a.m. on August 5, carrying three of the largest commercial antennas ever flown. Each one is meant to do a strange thing: give an ordinary smartphone a signal with no cell tower for hundreds of miles.
Updated Aug 9
As of August 2026: SPCX hit a new all-time low of $105.11 on August 6 as the first lockup wave freed 911.5 million insider shares, then reversed to trade higher; 319 million more shares unlock August 12
SpaceX's first lockup wave freed 911.5 million insider shares on August 6, more than doubling the stock's tradable float to 11.8% of shares outstanding from 4.9%. SPCX touched a new intraday low of $105.11, below the July 28 record of $107.01. Heavy selling never showed up: shares reversed and traded higher for much of the day, at one point up as much as 6%.
Updated Aug 6
As of July 2026: Primary launch provider and satellite builder
A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 3:10 a.m. Eastern on July 30, carrying a classified payload called NROL-95 for the National Reconnaissance Office, the US agency that builds and runs spy satellites. It was the agency's fourth launch of 2026. The booster, on its seventh flight, landed for reuse.
Updated Jul 30
As of July 2026: President Gwynne Shotwell pledged $320M in company stock for 2M+ children
The program launched July 4, 2026, opening for contributions on America's 250th birthday. Treasury deposited $1,000 into 1.4 million eligible accounts, committing $1.4 billion in total; 6 million children are now enrolled.
Updated Jul 7
As of June 2026: Launched SXM-11 and recovered the booster
Tens of millions of people get SiriusXM through satellites, not cell towers. On the night of June 28, a SpaceX Falcon 9 carried up a 7.5-ton replacement for hardware that has been beaming radio since 2009.
Updated Jun 28
As of June 2026: Developer and operator of Starfall
SpaceX launched its first Starfall capsule from Cape Canaveral on June 23, 2026. The disk-shaped vehicle is built to bring up to 1,000 kilograms of cargo back from orbit and splash down in the Pacific. Until now, returning material from space meant small capsules carrying dozens of kilograms.
Updated Jun 23
As of June 2026: Builds and launches the satellites
For decades, U.S. spy satellites were a handful of expensive giants, each roughly the size of a bus and worth billions. The National Reconnaissance Office is swapping that model for a swarm of small, mass-produced spacecraft.
Updated Jun 19
As of June 2026: Primary builder and launcher of the constellation
On June 7, a Falcon 9 rose from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California carrying 23 satellites. Two were Starshield, the military version of Starlink. SpaceX said so out loud, which it rarely does.
Updated Jun 7
As of May 2026: Dominant global launch provider; operates the rideshare program enabling this mission
For most of the space age, putting a satellite into orbit meant booking an entire rocket—an option available only to governments and the largest companies. SpaceX's rideshare program inverted that model: pay by the kilogram, share the ride, and launch on a schedule set by the operator, not the customer.
Updated May 31
As of May 2026: Successfully returned Falcon Heavy to flight on April 29, 2026, delivering ViaSat-3 F3 to geostationary transfer orbit
SpaceX launched Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center on April 29, 2026 at 10:13 a.m. Eastern, placing ViaSat-3 into geostationary transfer orbit. It was the rocket's first flight in 18 months and its 12th since 2018.
As of May 2026: Contracted to launch Roman on Falcon Heavy
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is fully built and targeting a September 2026 launch — eight months ahead of schedule. Its 300-megapixel infrared camera has a field of view 100 times wider than Hubble's and will photograph a billion galaxies and discover more than 100,000 new worlds in its first five years.
As of May 2026: Filed for Nasdaq IPO at up to $2 trillion valuation; won $2.29B Starshield contract; in pricing dispute with Pentagon over Iran war drone connections
SpaceX hit 50 dedicated Starlink launches before June 2026, roughly one every four days. The constellation has 10.3 million subscribers across 160 countries, 10,191 active satellites, and $10.6 billion in 2025 revenue. Starlink is SpaceX's only profitable division and the central asset in its pending Nasdaq IPO.
As of May 2026: Dominant launch provider; only prior company to reuse orbital boosters
Blue Origin flew a previously used New Glenn booster for the first time on April 19, 2026, becoming the second company ever to reuse an orbital-class rocket stage. The booster, 'Never Tell Me the Odds,' first flew in November 2025 and landed successfully again on the drone ship Jacklyn roughly ten minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral. One engine on the expendable upper stage didn't produce enough thrust during its second burn, leaving AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 stranded in an orbit too low for the satellite's electric thrusters to correct.
As of May 2026: CRS cargo provider and launch vehicle operator for Cygnus
For more than a decade, NASA has relied on private companies to haul groceries, lab equipment, and experiments to the International Space Station — a deliberate bet that commercial logistics would be cheaper and more reliable than government-built rockets. On April 11, 2026, Northrop Grumman's enlarged Cygnus XL spacecraft launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9. It delivered roughly 11,000 pounds of science cargo, including hardware for quantum physics research and therapeutic stem cell production.
As of May 2026: Primary commercial cargo carrier for ISS; demonstrated new reboost capability
For over two decades, the International Space Station has been the only place where humans can grow tissues, crystals, and cells in ways impossible on Earth. After 185 days in orbit, SpaceX's Dragon capsule undocked February 26.
Updated May 29
As of May 2026: Controller of world's largest satellite internet constellation
Ukraine's military has depended on Starlink satellite internet since the first week of Russia's 2022 invasion. On February 5, 2026, SpaceX cut off Russian forces from that network, collapsing command systems and halving daily assault operations within hours.
Updated May 27
As of May 2026: Conducting evacuation
NASA evacuated one crew member from the International Space Station on January 14, 2026, for a serious but stable medical condition. The SpaceX Crew Dragon carried four astronauts home six weeks early, splashing down safely off California on January 15 after 167 days in space. This ended a 25-year streak without a medical evacuation, despite predictions of one every three years.
Updated May 21
As of May 2026: Rapid iteration model adopted as Pentagon acquisition blueprint; awarded $739M Space Force contract
Trump wants to spend $1.5 trillion on defense in 2027—a jaw-dropping 66% jump from this year's $901 billion. This would be the largest single-year defense increase since the Korean War.
Updated May 19
As of May 2026: Competitor and contracted launcher
A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday morning carrying replacement satellites Globalstar needs to keep its mobile network alive. The same launch ticks off one of the conditions Amazon set before paying about $10.7 billion to buy the company.
Updated May 17
As of May 2026: Alternate launch provider for multiple iQPS satellites, underscoring iQPS’s multi-provider strategy
Rocket Lab ended 2025 with another success. On Dec. 21, Electron lifted off from Māhia and placed iQPS's QPS-SAR-15 into orbit, extending a run of repeat business that positions Rocket Lab as a default launcher for constellation operators.
Updated May 15
As of May 2026: Major NASA contractor; central to Artemis lander plans and political scrutiny
One day after his 67–30 confirmation, Jared Isaacman was sworn in on Dec. 18, 2025 as NASA's 15th administrator—walking directly into a White House-driven acceleration campaign that now has his name on the clock, not just the contracts.
As of May 2026: Starlink market leader; also launching some Kuiper/Leo satellites
At 3:28 a.m. ET on December 16, ULA lit an Atlas V and pushed 27 Amazon Leo broadband satellites into orbit. It's another clean launch in a campaign that's starting to look like a metronome: stack satellites, light rocket, repeat.
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