SpaceX made history today (June 12) with the largest IPO in history, but for its launch team in Florida, it was business as usual.
Just over an hour (8:17 a.m. EDT or 1217 GMT on Friday) before the company's stock went public on the Nasdaq exchange —quickly making founder Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire — a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 29 Starlink satellites lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The broadband relay satellites (Group 10-54) were deployed into low Earth orbit at just about the same time trading of SpaceX stock began.
"$SPCX. Now trading on Nasdaq," the exchange posted and SpaceX re-shared on social media. As the market closed, SpaceX's stock price sat at just over $161 a share, up from $155 when it debuted. The company is now valued at just over $2.1 trillion, according to the New York Times.
Ax-2 | Euclid | Ax-3 | CRS-30 | SES ASTRA 1P | NG-21 | 20 Starlink launches
Meanwhile, as the company's value soared, the Falcon 9's first stage (B1080) completed its 27th flight, touching down on its four landing legs atop the autonomous droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Starlink megaconstellation has more than 10,600 active satellites, according to tracker Jonathan McDowell. The network provides access to the internet from locations around the world, in-flight on airliners and direct-to-cell on select providers.
The launch on Friday was SpaceX's 68th Falcon 9 mission of the year.
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Robert Z. PearlmancollectSPACE.com Editor, Space.com ContributorRobert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com, a daily news publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018. In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History. In 2023, the National Space Club Florida Committee recognized Pearlman with the Kolcum News and Communications Award for excellence in telling the space story along the Space Coast and throughout the world.
