SpaceX Stock Stumbles Below IPO Price Amid Starship Engine Failure and Looming Insider Share Deluge
Published on 07/18/2026 at 14:23 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
SpaceX, the company behind the world’s most ambitious rocket program, watched its stock slide beneath its initial public offering price on Friday, battered by a last-second Starship launch abort and a looming wall of insider shares about to hit the market. The newly public equity, which soared to a record high just a month ago, is now fighting to hold ground above its 52-week low.
The latest blow came on the evening of July 16, when Starship Flight 13 was aborted at T?0 during the ignition sequence of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor engines. Elon Musk confirmed that four of the engines failed to ignite properly. SpaceX technicians are replacing two of the affected units, and Musk has targeted a fresh attempt “early next week,” with industry sources flagging Monday, July 20, as a possible launch date. The mission was set to deploy the first V3?generation Starlink satellites and is considered a critical milestone for NASA’s Artemis lunar program.
Ironically, a different SpaceX rocket performed flawlessly on the same day. A Falcon 9 carrying 21 satellites for the Space Development Agency’s transport layer lifted off and its booster, flying for the fourth time, landed successfully. But the routine triumph was almost entirely overshadowed by the Starship debacle — a pattern that has become painfully familiar for shareholders.
As if the engine trouble were not enough, the calendar is stacking additional pressure on the stock. Shortly after the company reports second?quarter earnings on August 6, a lockup period for early investors and insiders is set to expire. According to filings with the U.S. securities regulator, as many as 1.37 billion shares could become tradable in early August. Market participants are bracing for potential selling pressure from holders who have been waiting months to cash out.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SpaceX?
The price action tells a stark story. One data provider put Friday’s close at 108.40 euros, a daily decline of 5.39%; another recorded 108.34 euros with a loss of 5.50%. Either way, the stock is now below the original IPO price of 135 US dollars — a symbolic threshold that had seemed unassailable when the listing debuted on June 12 as the largest in history. From the record high of June 16, the shares have shed more than 44% of their value, wiping out over a trillion euros in market capitalization.
Technical measures underscore the anxiety. The 14?day relative strength index has sunk to 34.6, flirting with oversold territory, while the 30?day annualized volatility has surged to 93.2% — extraordinary for a company of this size so soon after going public.
Amid the gloom, a potential bright spot emerged from a Wall Street Journal report indicating that SpaceX is in early talks with the Pentagon about a massive artificial?infrastructure deal. The company would provide dedicated data?center capacity to run advanced AI models for the Defense Department, a contract that could be valued in the tens of billions of dollars. If finalized, the agreement would transform SpaceX from a pure rocket and satellite supplier into a direct competitor to cloud giants like Amazon and Microsoft. The structure would mirror a previous arrangement with Google, a multi?year deal worth roughly $920 million per month running through 2029.
SpaceX at a turning point? This analysis reveals what investors need to know now.
But the market remains skeptical for now. Investors appear to be weighing the near?term operational setbacks and the share?overhang threat more heavily than the long?term strategic narrative. The next few days will provide a critical test: a successful Starship launch on Monday could quickly reverse sentiment, while another failure would likely deepen the sell?off — especially with the lockup clock ticking.
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